


Red (and blue) like roses volume 2

by Honor_and_glory_to_the_empire



Series: Red (And Blue) Like Roses [2]
Category: RWBY, Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Wash sarge and caboose are stuck inside ruby's head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 33
Words: 73,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23910043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honor_and_glory_to_the_empire/pseuds/Honor_and_glory_to_the_empire
Summary: Its been three years sense Sarge, Caboose and Agent Washington all appeared in the world of Remnant, only able to be seen by a silver eyed girl.Now with the first semester over, teams RPBY and SALN have to deal with new problems and enemies. All the while, a sinister conspiracy to destroy Beacon lurks in the background......
Relationships: Agent Texas | AI Program Beta & Qrow Branwen, Blake Belladonna/Ruby Rose, Michael J. Caboose & Agent Washington, Michael J. Caboose & Sarge, Ruby Rose & Agent Washington & Sarge & Michael J. Caboose, Sarge & Agent Washington (Red vs. Blue)
Series: Red (And Blue) Like Roses [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722166
Comments: 180
Kudos: 119





	1. Tukson's Book Trade.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! this is a sequel to Red and blue like roses which covers volume one. it is recommended that you read that one first.
> 
> But for those who want to just jump right in, here is a brief summary.  
> warning! spoilers obviously.  
> Sarge, Wash and Caboose have been stuck with Ruby Rose for the past 3 years. When they arrived at Beacon, their influence caused Ruby and Pyrrha to be partners, while Weiss and Jaune teamed up.  
> this has lead to different teams from cannon, team RPBY or Raspberry and team SALN or Salmon. A bunch of character development happens, and eventually, they go to the docks as cannon. at said docks, ruby and wash temperately combine, allowing ruby to uses wash's semblance to protect herself. 
> 
> obviously that was a brief summary, that left out several major characters and plot points. if you want more then i recommend you read volume 1 when you get a chance or have some free time.

Tukson was having a pretty good day, all things considered.

His plans to leave the White Fang were finally coming to fruition, and he had found someone willing to take over his shop while he was in Vacuo, a young enterprising man named Jenkins, so his business would remain open.

He then heard a the familiar ring of his shop bell.

_**Ding!** _

"Be right there!" He called out as he went through a set of double doors carrying stacks of books as he walked backwards and out towards his counter.

"Welcome to 'Tukson's Book Trade', home to every book under the sun!" He spouted off his motto, he then set the stacks of fresh books down and turned to face his newest customers.

"How may I..." He began before recognising the two individuals in his store, Emerald and Mercury, part of the reason he had left the White Fang. 

Mercury was holding a book and his partner was standing in front of his counter. "How may I help you?" He continued anyway, playing for time.

"Just browsing." Mercury shut the book. Then the thief spoke up. 

"Actually, I was wondering, do you have any copies of " _The Thief and The Butcher_ "?" That book was a classic, and it's title a clear threat. He had several copies in stock.

"Yes we do." He nervously told her, looking for a way out.

"That's great!" Emerald told him in an excited tone.

 **"** Would you..." He took a deep breath, "Like a copy?" He asked hopefully.

"No, just wondering." She told him, obviously trying to draw out this encounter for as long as possible. "Oh, oh! What about " _Violet's Garden_ "? In paperback?"

"He's got it. Hardback too." The assassin called over, holding up said book.

"Ooh, options are nice." Well she was right about that, Tukson always tried to cater to all types of readers.

"Eh, no pictures." Mercury closed the book. "Hey! Do you have any comics?" He called over to Tukson.

"Near the front." He told Mercury reluctantly, he had started to stock up on comic books once it was clear some of the students of Beacon would be willing to buy them.

"Oh, no, wait! What... about... " _Third Crusade_ "?" Dammit. That was a book that she knew that he didn't have. He had complained about it to his former friends in the White Fang just last week.

Slightly unnerved by them both directly looking at him, it took him a moment to answer. "Um... I...don't believe, we carry that one." He answered carefully.

Emerald gave a small laugh, "What was this place called again?"

"Tukson's Book Trade." He answered wearily. It looks like the little game was coming to an end.

"And you're Tukson?" She questioned, but they all knew that, she knew the answer.

"That's right."

"So then I take it that, you're the one that came up with the catchphrase?" She continued with this farce.

"Yes." It was one of the best ideas he had ever had.

"And, what was it again?" Mercury spoke up, as innocently as mugger with his victim at gun point.

From memory he recited, "Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun."

" _Except_ the _Third Crusade_." The silver haired boy said accusingly.

"It's just a catchphrase." Tukson defended.

"It's false advertising!" Mercury exclaimed, showing that he missed his calling, as an failed actor.

"You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep, Tukson." Mercury activated the switch near the entrance causing one of the front windows to darken. "I hear that you're planning on leaving. Moving all the way to Vacuo." A fact that was not publicly advertised. Mercury continued to darken the windows. "Your brothers in the White Fang won't be happy to hear that." Mercury activated the third and final switch, darkening the last window. "And neither are we... You know who we are, don't you?" The thief finished rhetorically.

"Yes." Was all he said, tone hardening, as he mentally prepared himself for the coming fight.

"And you know why we're here?" Emerald asked, but before Tukson could answer.

_**Ding!** _

He was saved by the bell.

A new face entered his store, one he'd never seen before. 

It was a man in full armour, coloured steel with an orange trim and strange looking helmet. He was either Atlas military or an huntsman. Only they would dress that eccentrically.

"I'm sorry is this Tuksons?" The stranger asked, causing the two criminals to turn and look straight at the new arrival.

This prompted a "You!" and an "Oh great, _this_ guy." From Emerald and Mercury respectively. Did they know this huntsman? 

"Yes this is 'Tukson's Book Trade', home to every book under the sun." He recited the phrase tensely, "How.....how can I help?"

"Hello, yes, you can call me Felix, and...." This 'Felix' paused "Wait one minute, are these guy's bothering you?" Felix gestured to the two would be assassins.

Seeing his way out, Tukson took it. "Yes. They are disrupting my business." He told the probable huntsman. 

Felix threw up his hand turned to the kids. "Unbelievable..... are you kids _seriously_ , harassing this store owner, for no good reason?" He scolded the kids, like a parent would to their child.

"But you-" Emerald tried to debate, but was cut off by Felix. 

"I don't want to hear it." The solider told the duo, "I think you two should just leave right now." 

Despite the murderous glares the duo were giving him, they complied with Felix's demands and left Tukson's store without another word.

Tukson turned toward his saviour, "Thank you." Was all he said. 

"It was _no_ problem." Felix then got to business. "Tell me do you have a copy of ' _the girl in the tower?"_

"A very common book, fortunately I just got a shipment of them." Tukson informed him, he turned his back to Felix and went to the stack from earlier and found the copy of ' _the girl in the tower_.'

Then he heard a muffled noise and then felt a sharp sensation in his chest. Looking down he could see a bullet wound in the area of his heart. 

Tukson fell to the floor, dead on impact.

* * *

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever wonder why we're here?" Agent Washington asked Sarge, who seemed thoughtful.

"It's one of life's great mysteries isn't it? Why are we here?" The red team leader pondered out-loud, "I always thought, that the _true_ goal of life is to kill or be killed, to survive and get a one up on the other guy. To be able to say 'I beat you' as he struggles to stay alive. After all, it's dog vs cats, or red vs blue world out there. One has to destroy the other to achieve something in this life. Even if red is clearly better than blue."

The two soldiers stood there, in what Sarge considered to be, a thoughtful silence.

"......"

"......"

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" Nora declared.

"What?" Wash questioned Sarge, "I mean why are we here, watching this food fight, when there are clearly better thing we can be doing."

"Oh." 

"What was all of that stuff about killing?" Wash pressed.

"Nothing." 

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No."

They then looked to Ruby on top of a table.

"Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful!" Ruby crushed a carton of milk in her hand _._ "It will be _delicious!"_ The red leader declared, leading to a resounding "Yeah!" from the other members of team RPBY. 

This caused Weiss to laugh.

"Ha ha ha. Don't make me laugh." The leader of team SALN''s eyes narrowed. "As I did just now."

With a mighty battle cry, team RPBY charged.

"But, seriously, there are far better things they could be doing." The leader of blue team told the leader of red, ignoring the culinary carnage around them.

"Oh, just let 'em have a bit of fun. No need to be a stick in the mud." Sarge told the freelancer.

But said freelancer wasn't impressed. "You call ruining perfectly good food and causing property damage 'fun'?" 

"Of course, so did Church back in Blood Gulch." Sarge cocked his head to the side, "I think that preferred him to you, i'm honest."

Washington rolled his eyes, "I think I did a _pretty_ good job at leading blue team."

Almost on Que, Caboose ran by screaming for 'fun' as he had been sense the food fight started.

"It's times like this I miss church, the blue bastard." Sarge sighed. "And I wonder what amazing adventures he would be having if he were here, right about............"

"Now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello one and all, and welcome to, Red (and Blue) Like roses volume 2.  
> I would firstly, like to welcome all returning readers and all new readers.
> 
> This is the equivalent of the canon volume 2 and will cover much of the same events and more. With things obviously being changed by the presence of the blues and red. 
> 
> The opening of volume two is probably my favourite opening to any of the volumes, combining tension in the first half and comedy in the second.  
> There isn't much else to say, except this is the start of a far longer fic than my last one, this one being planned to be 33 chapters as opposed to the previous ones 12. 
> 
> Please feel free to leave a review/comment, as i read them all. 
> 
> And one last thing, while they wont be a major thing in this fic, I am considering doing some minor pairings around the time of the dance, so feel free to let me know what pairings you would like to see. 
> 
> Next time will cover the amazing adventures of Leonard "motherfucking ghost" Church and more.  
> till next time catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	2. A Girl Named Tex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Church makes a friend and Tex gets into a bar fight.

"FUCKING BULLSHIT!" Church yelled into the sky, and yet not _one_ person turned to look at him.

Which was indicative of the problem.

Church had been a ghost for a while now, ever sense caboose had killed him with his own tank. And most of the time, he got round in his robot body, only becoming a proper ghost when it suited him.

And when he did turn into said ghost, people could still see him.

Until now.

Now on this planet, not a single fucking person could see him.

Fucking bullshit.

After figuring out that people couldn't see him, Church had been trying the second part of his powers. Possessing people.

Unfortunately, he was having as about as much luck as he was when trying to get people to acknowledge his existence.

"I swear, if this doesn't work this time, I am going to loose it." Church said to himself as he walked towards another of the people just walking in the street.

Honestly, seeing people without armour was a weird experience, as it had been years sense he had last saw anyone that wasn't wearing full body armour. 

Maybe it was some how influencing his ability to take over peoples bodies?

Regardless, Church went to possess the civilian just walking in the street. 

He went over to him and-

Just walked right through him. Again. It honestly filled him with such a rage that he couldn't really do much else than yell curses to the sky.

"What! The! Fuck! Is! Wrong! With! Everyone!" he gave a scream so full of rage, that he reminded himself of O'Malley.

"You really shouldn't swear, mister invisible man."

"Jesus Christ!" Church phased backwards out of shock, looking around to see a little girl with orange hair in a dress.

"Christ kid, where did you come from?" The cobalt trooper asked her.

"Well, originally I was born in Atlas, where I grew up with a perfectly _normal_ family" The kid told Church, before she gave a small hiccup.

"Right....uh, kid." Church began.

"Penny, my name is Penny Polendina!" She interrupted him.

"Right....Penny, my name is Church and uh, i'm a ghost." Church explained awkwardly, "And uh, no one here can see me, except you."

"Oh! I can't see you mister Church." Penny interrupted. 

Church took a moment to ponder what the orange hair girl just said. "Uh firstly, just call me Church, no 'mister' i'm not 50 for gods sake. and secondly if you can't see me, then how are you talking to me?"

"Well I can't see you with my eyes, which is odd because they can process over 10000 frames per second." Penny told him like it was perfectly normal. "But my ears can pick you up perfectly fine"

Church blinked under his ghostly helmet. "Right, so you can hear me but not see me?"

"That is correct mister Church."

Right, so someone can hear him, but no see him. Fuck it, at this point he would take what could.

"Right kid, do you have any idea why you can hear me, but others can't." He asked, gesturing to the other people, who were looking at Penny weirdly as they passed her in the street.

"Nope." Was her heart-crushing answer. "But my friend ruby might know."

"Ruby?" The ghost asked "Who's she?"

The smile that was already of Penny's face widened, "Ruby is my most, absolute best friend mister Church!" Penny informed him, giving Church a minor flashback to being inside caboose's brain.

"She has friends who are just like you." 

As penny said that, church's mind raced with the possibilities and landed on one.

"Did any of the voices, like, give their names? Was one of them Tex?" Church asked, mind full of hope.

Penny considered what Church had said. "No, none of them were named Tex, but there _was_ more than one."

"Alright, take me to Ruby." Church told her, causing the robot girl to shake her head.

"No....i'm afraid we can't." The orange haired girl said with a sigh. "I'm afraid that i'm not able to see Ruby again until the festival. And _technically_ I am not supposed to be outside at the moment."

Church froze, "Why the hell not!?" He exclaimed.

"It's the orders of General Ironwood."

"Why would a general-" Church cut himself off. "Right, tell me something, you don't like this order right?"

"Yes."

"So why don't we just, you know.....break the rules."

Penny gave a little shocked gasp. "But mister Church, we can't do that. General Ironwood and my father would not approve."

The gears in Church's head turned, Penny seemed to be a stickler for the rules, kinda like Simmons was. But she was also a teenager.

"But kid, don't you want to participate in a little teenage rebellion?" Church asked craftily, causing Penny to give a little gasp.

"Teenage rebellion?" Penny repeated before her eyes lit up, "Teenage rebellion! I've _always_ wanted to participate in that!" 

Church nodded encouragingly, not that Penny could see it.

"Alright mister Church, I will help you find Ruby." Penny nodded.

"Alright then, when can we start?" Church questioned.

"An optimal search routine based on known, previous movements of Ruby Rose would have to start from 16:00 to 00:00 hours." Penny paused, "We can start tomorrow, I shall need to get back before some one notices I am missing."

"Alright kid, meet you hear at four tomorrow, got it?" 

"Yes mister Church!" With that Penny skipped off, leaving church to ponder his first success.

He just had to follow that weird girl around tomorrow and he would find this 'Ruby' girl. 

Then he could find Tex.

* * *

In her surprisingly short, yet fucked up life, Tex has seen a _lot_ of weird shit.

Ancient prophecies, swords that were also keys, an A.I that thought it was a ghost, etc.

But honestly, waking up on a different planet, after dying to an E.M.P, that was apparently in a completely different universe?

 _That_ took the proverbial cake.

Still, once she had figured out that she was most likely in a different universe, stuck with Omega, Tex knew there was only one thing to do.

She had to get a drink.

Of course she couldn't actually drink said drink, being in a robot body and all, but she'd ordered one anyway.

 **"And _I_ am O'Malley." **Omega said, using the voice modifier. **"Now where the _hell_ are we?" **He'd said it to the dude that was chatting with her (his name was Qrow apparently), he seemed as miserable as she felt, and hey misery love company right?

"what?" Qrow asked her as Tex shook her head violently. 

"Fuck off O'Malley." Tex threatened the genocidal A.I, forcing him to a place at the back of her mind, she then turned to Qrow. "Sorry about that. My A.I, Omega, is being a real _bitch_ lately."

Of course this apparently made him confused, "A.I?" Qrow repeated like a question.

"Yeah, an A.I, i'm guessing that they aren't too common?" Tex asked, but never received an answer, as someone tapped her on her shoulder.

Tex turned around to see a small group of guys, 8 in total, all big one ones, with more brawn than brain looking at her.

"You two are in our seats. move." The biggest one said, Tex guessed that he was the leader.

Tex gave a short, mocking laugh, "Yeah, I don't think so buddy. Now why don't you are your little buddies there, **just fuck off.** " Omega finish for her. 

"Look." Qrow held up a free hand. "We don't want any trouble."

"Then move." The big guy told them, flexing his muscles in an attempt to threaten them. Tex gave a snort. Carolina's were bigger.

"What if we don't want to?" Tex asked, knowing the cliched answer. 

"Then we _make_ you move." The big guy cracked his knuckles will his friends jeered. 

Getting up from her seat, Tex passed her drink to Qrow. "Feel free to drink it." She told him as she looked the big guy dead in the eyes.

"Gonna fight us, Atlas?" he taunted.

"I wouldn't say fight....." Tex said casually as she stretched her robot body. "I'd call this a good ol'fashioned, no-hold-barred beatdown."

"Cute." Was all the big guy said before throwing his fist right toward Tex, which she simply caught with her hand.

"What?!" He yelled out in surprise, causing Tex to give a phantom grin, as she twisted his hand downwards, as he winded in pain and struggled in her grasp.

"What's wrong?" Tex taunted, "Didn't expect to be beaten up by a girl?" She poked holes at their masculinity. She then let the guy go and sent him flying into his friends with a powerful kick.

"Who's next?" The number one freelancer asked as the other seven men charged at her in a mess of punches, which she parried easily, sending two of them flying into tables and putting the rest on the defensive. 

In one fluid motion, Tex charged at one of the men, but at the last moment she channelled her momentum into a slide, going under his legs and hitting the thugs groin on the way past, causing him to kneel over.

With four out of eight done and out, Tex continued her taunts. "Is this the best you have? Seriously?" She asked them in a mocking tone. This caused them to reach for their belts and pull out swords. Honest to god _swords._

Tex looked at them for a moment and gave a long, hearty laugh.

"S- s- swords!? Seriously!?" Tex breathed out between laughs, "What is this, the eleventh century?"

The four idiots looked at each other and then charged, causing Tex to grab the cue stick from the table behind her and use it to parry their strikes.

Despite not being what one would call a duellist, Tex could tell that the big guy's rarely took out, much less used their swords. As a result their technique was sloppy.

Tex batted aside one of the thugs attacks, and hit another one right in his face, breaking his nose and jaw with a satisfying crunch. She then effortlessly dodged the other two's attacks as their swings went wild. Sensing an opening, Tex delivered a picture perfect roundhouse kick to one of the brutes groins and delivered an uppercut to another in a fluid motion. After seeing her being a complete and utter badass, the final grunt dropped his sword and ran out of the bar.

Tex turned around to face Qrow who was looking at her with a carefully schooled expression. 

Tex started to walk back to her seat, when Omega pinged her.

**Behind you.**

Before she fully turned around Tex heard the familiar bang of a gun.

It only grazed her side, causing her body to spark. But it was enough to fully enrage Tex.

Using the cue stick and fully in sync with O'Malley, they bashed the attacker, (who was one of the thugs that she _thought_ was knocked out), and shattered the stick over his head, sending him to the ground.

Taking several robotic breaths, Tex looked at the trashed bar as Qrow got up from his chair and walked up to beside her. 

"wanna get out of here?" The drunk asked her.

"And go where?" Tex replied.

"I know a place." Was all he said, Tex nodded and they left the bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, that was a fun chapter to write.
> 
> To be honest, Alpha!church is my second favourite red vs blue character. So pairing him with Penny, my fourth favourite RWBY character, was a no brainier. 
> 
> The idea of teaming up Tex and Qrow in their own subplot, came after I listened to 'a girl named Tex' and thought of those two in a bar fight. Let me tell ya, it was one of the best ideas I've had and will pay off in the finale.
> 
> There isn't much else to say for this chapter except to ask; is there any RvB character you would like to see pop up in this fic, as I am thinking about adding in more. The only stipulation is that they must be canonically dead.
> 
> As always, all reviews comments and constructive criticisms are welcome as i read them all.
> 
> Next time we can expect an appearance from Jaune and the rest of team SALN.  
> Till then, thank you for reading and i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	3. Nightmare (Again)

Contrary to popular opinion, Jaune Arc is not a oblivious idiot that sucked at fighting.

He in fact was getting better at fighting thanks to his training with Weiss, who also was helping with his studies to get him up to an 'acceptable standard'. Which of course meant straight B grades or higher.

So that just left an oblivious student with reasonable knowledge that was slightly better at fighting than before.

And even then, his reputation as oblivious was overstated and played up by his friends, mostly Yang, Ruby and Nora.

An example of him not being oblivious, was with Pyrrha nikos. when they first met in the Beacon court yard he attempted to flirt with her. And to his eternal surprise she accepted it and even flirted back. Granted both of their flirting was absolutely abysmal and they both knew it, but it was flirting none the less. Even after her celebrity status was revealed and they were put onto different teams, they continued this game of flirting. It was giving Jaune the confidence to do something he had never considered before.

He was going to ask Pyrrha on a date.

Of course, he was terrified that she would say no, but he promise himself he would try over the Halloween break. And an Arc never breaks his promises. 

There was just one problem. 

He had no idea on how to ask a girl on an actual date.

Sure his dad had told him a few pick up lines, and Jaune had been forced to watch some romance movies with his sisters, but that was the limit of his romantic knowledge.

As such, he needed some outside help.

He considered many options, he couldn't ask Pyrrha for advice on how to ask herself out obviously, Yang would tease him and just _tell_ Pyrrha afterwards, Ruby would _try_ to help but she just wasn't the type to keep secrets. Blake _was_ considered for a while, but Jaune decided not to, seeing as the most they had ever talked together was at Ruby's birthday party on Halloween about the upcoming spruce Willis film. So Jaune crossed her off the list.

That just left jaune with the other members of his team. 

He really needed more friends.

Taking a deep breath, Jaune entered his team's dorm room. 

As usual, Weiss was at her desk doing the homework they had gotten today, while Ren was busy playing a card game with Nora. It was a very complex one that Nora had found in a thrift shop, and was insistent on mastering.

Going over to Weiss, Jaune took a seat next to the heiress, who stopped writing her sentence to look at him.

"Evening Jaune." Weiss said pleasantly, "Where were you?" She inquired.

Scratching the back of his head, Jaune answered "Just... took a walk."

Weiss nodded and turned back to her work, probably assuming that Jaune would be bringing out work of his own. 

But contrary to what Weiss was probably expecting, Jaune instead cleared his throat and spoke to the heiress. "Weiss... I, uh, need your help." Jaune said awkwardly, inwardly cringing at his own tone.

His team leader then straightened up in her seat and turned to Jaune. 

"What do you need?" She asked him, tone slightly concerned.

Jaune turned red as he struggled to find the right words. 

"I, uh ,I mean a- I _kinda_ , want your advice." He stammered out, "On how to ask Pyrrha out on a date....." He finished so quietly that he could barely hear himself, while his face was a lovely red colour due to embarrassment.

"What-" Weiss barely got out, before Nora catapulted across the room, pulled Jaune from his chair and started shaking him senseless. "YOUR ASKING PYRRHA ON A DATE!?" The lightning viking exclaimed so loudly, that Jaune was suddenly _very_ glad all beacon dorms were sound proofed.

"Yes." Jaune weakly got out as he felt the familiar feeling of vomit coming up his throat due to her intense shaking.

Nora then gave a small squeal of delight, and let go of Jaune, who became a small heap on the floor. 

Still sitting, Weiss looked down at jaune, "So _you_ are asking _Pyrrha_ on a date?" She asked quizzically. 

"Yep." He groaned out as Weiss offered and, which he took, getting him back into his seat. "And I need you guys to give me some advice on how to do it."

Weiss hummed neutrally, while Ren came over and joined the group. 

"Well if you want my advice." Ren started, "You should just ask her tomorrow at breakfast." The green ninja advised him.

Nora, being Nora, agreed with Ren immediately. "Yeah! You should listen, Ren is like wise about this kind of stuff, he's like _super_ wise, like Ozpin or an old lady." Nora said cheerily.

Weiss nodded in agreement. "It does seem like the right move."

Jaune blinked. "That's it? No crazy schemes? No build up? Just....ask?" The white knight questioned. It seemed too simple.

Weiss shrugged, "As my sister once told me, the simplest solution is often the best solution."

"Alright. But what about her teammate? I don't want to be teased by Yang." Jaune asked worryingly.

"We can distract them for you." Ren promised at the same time Nora yelled. "We'll break their legs!"

"We'll, uh thanks guy's." He thanked his teammates awkwardly, but relived. It was good to know that his team had his back.

"Your welcome." Weiss smiled genuinely. "Now get out your books, we need to go over today's homework. it may be Friday, but that is _no_ excuse to slack off."

"Aye, aye ice queen." Nora saluted. causing Weiss to give a shout of indignation, while Jaune grinned and got out his books.

He hoped everyone else was have a good a night as he was.

* * *

_He slouched down in his bed, the test had went poorly, only a C, his dad would kill him when he found out._

_He turned to his cat._

_"You know Loki." Mused David, "I should probably study more."_

_His cat mewed in agreement and then the door flew open-_

_"-I'm telling you, it's true!" Tucker insisted, causing Wash to roll his eyes._

_"You want me to believe that Sarge of all people, knocked Tex out?" He asked his friend who threw his arms up, knocking over their meal._

_"Yes!" Then we had to use one of my awesome plans to spring her out." Tucker bragged._

_Wash leaned in. "That's not what Church tells me." He told the aqua/teal sim trooper, who-_

_-Rolled his eye. "i still can't believe that you fell for that." York told Washington, who continued to fire at the enemy._

_"This isn't the time!" He yelled at his friend who gave a small chuckle from his place in cover._

_"Oh come on Wash, you know what then say, no time like-"_

_"-The present." He finish as he looked at his daughter, causing the little red head to give a small frown._

_"But I wanna wait up for moooommmmm." His little angel whined out, he gave a small chuckle._

_"She'll be here in the morning." He patted her back. "Now off to bed, no-"_

_"Excuses." The director finished coldly, Wash shifted under his gaze but Carolina remained firm._

_"Of course sir." They both repeated._

_"Dismissed." The pair left him and walked along the corridor._

_Gathering up his courage, Wash spoke up, "Hey Carolina are you ready for the mission?"_

_Carolina scoffed, "I think the real question is-"_

_"-Are you sure, you three can hold this corridor?" Carolina asked, full of concern._

_Wash nodded. "We can hold it." He promised her, causing Sarge and Caboose to give their own nods of agreement._

_"Yeah, just go and get that dirtbag." Sarge told them, referring to Hargrove._

_Kimball spoke up, "Good luck and stay safe."_

_"Yeah, kick their ass." Tucker encouraged from the Meta's suit. It was funny he looked nothing like-_

_-Maine actually spoke in protest. "Too high."_

_"Oh, don't be a baby." Carolina told him, you could practically hear her eyes rolling as she kicked him out the window._

_It was funny Maine always was-_

_-afraid of heights and that was how the meta had finally died._

_Ironic._

_"You wanna get moving Wash?" Tucker called over._

_"give me a few minutes!" wash called back in his new cobalt blue armour._

_He still couldn't believe they had saved him from prison. They had no real reason to and hell, he had even shot some of their friends._

_But they had given him a second chance anyway. He did not intend to waste it._

_Still, before making new friends, he had to say goodbye to the old._

_"Goodbye Maine." He told the ocean from the side of the sidewinder cliff. "You might have been a broken and terrible person, especially towards the end. But... I still remember a time when you, where my friend."_

_Washington sighed, looking out towards the old, he then turned to the new._

_Maine was gone for good. But it was time to move on._

_His new friends had given him a second chance._

_He would not waste it._

_His armour was shattered and weapon empty._

_Slumped over, he could see Sarge dragging Caboose away, blood flowing from blue armour's visor._

_A bullet shattered red armour, Sarge fell with a cry of pain._

_His friends were in trouble._

_Taking out his pistol wash charged, ready to die for his friends-_

Then Ruby Rose woke up.

* * *

With heavy breathing, Ruby pulled herself upright in her bed.

She took a few moments to calm herself, taking deep breaths as she thought about what had happened.

Were those Wash's memories?

And if they were, why was she only seeing them in her dreams now?

Looking around, she saw that everyone as still asleep, including the blues and reds.

Including Wash.

Ruby slumped back down into her bed. Wash's memory had been fragmented and jumpy, going from place to place on a whim.

And that last memory......

When ever she asked, what the last thing they remembered before arriving in Remnant was, the answer was always the same.

Sarge and Caboose where preparing for a last stand on the Staff Of Charon. Wash was seconds from boarding the same ship. Then it was very foggy, and then they were on Patch, with her, at her mothers grave.

Could that memory fragment be the missing piece?

She would have to talk about it to the guy's tomorrow.

And despite her own optimism, she had a very bad feeling about this development.

Still, it could wait until tomorrow.

And with that Ruby snuggled into her blankets and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was fun to write.
> 
> Here I introduce our first look at what's happening with Jaune in his head in this crossover, and with Pyrrha and Jaune being on different teams and Pyrrha not putting herself into a teacher/student/best friend role, I feel that romance could indeed bloom in these new circumstances.
> 
> Not much to note about Wash's memories, other than I really had fun with it, and enjoyed hinting at what happened to our favourite trio before they entered Remnant. It should also be noted that this will have some consequences later in the story. Feel free to guess at what they may be.
> 
> I would like to thank everyone who suggested RvB characters to put into this crossover, some of them have given me great ideas and made me rewrite the outline.
> 
> As always, I would like to thank everyone for reading.  
> All reviews, comments and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated. 
> 
> Next time, we'll be checking in with the bad guys and Qrow, so please look forward to that.
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading, and i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	4. By The Campfire

It was rare for Cinder Fall to have a good day. That isn't to say she usually had bad days, in fact she would categorise the majority of her days as acceptable.

A truly good day for her often meant something that advances her plans or something unexpected, but beneficial happening.

For example, the arrival of Felix.

The mercenary had popped out of the blue, offering to help after Roman had failed a simple job.

She had thought little of him at first, just a mere mercenary looking for a quick paycheck. But that swiftly changed when none of her contacts could find so much as a rumour about him. They even had a voice analyser they had procured, that had pinned him as a first year beacon student, but a few days surveillance proved they were not the same person.

He was also a very _clever_ mercenary, feeding her trickles of information and keeping the rest close to his chest.

the most interesting of these trickles was that he was from a parallel universe. a very intriguing piece of information that cinder was considering telling her master once she had more to go on but his word.

Cinder now had Felix working with Roman on his contribution to the plan, while she contacted a few experts about the idea of parallel universes.

Speaking of the devil......

From the shadows she watched as the mercenary entered the warehouse, Mercury and Emerald in tow. Torchwick then got up from the crates he had been lounging on and walked leisurely to greet them.

"Greetings officer!" Vale's most wanted called out. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Are these your kids?" Felix asked playing along.

"Used to be, lost 'em to the missus in the divorce." Torchwick said with a dramatic shaking of his head, causing Emerald to roll her eyes.

"Wow." The green haired girl congratulated, "You two are real comedians."

"We try." Roman told her, before turning to his partner. "Where were they?" He asked him.

"About to mess up our plans with Tukson." Felix informed his criminal partner. "I had to just shoot him and not use the poison like we planned."

"I'm sure _that_ explains why you're only attacking now instead of a week ago." Mercury retorted to the duo, who shared a look.

Torchwick leaned forward. "Listen, you little punk. If it were up to me, then I would take you and your little street rat friend here and-"

"Do _what_ , Roman?" Cinder cut him off and stepping out of the shadows, it wouldn't do well for her pawns to start fighting amongst themselves after all.

Roman laughed nervously, while Felix sighed. "I'd, uh... _not_ kill them?" The criminal suggested as the lift lowered her to the ground.

Ignoring Emeralds cry of "Cinder!" She walked towards the duo in charge of this branch of her operation.

"I thought I made it clear that you two would eliminate the would-be runaway." Cinder said coldly. 

"And we did." Felix held up a hand. "Shot him through the heart myself, but these two _idiots_ nearly ruined everything."

" _He_ was going to escape to Vacuo!" Emerald spoke out of turn. "Mercury and _I_ decided to take it upon ourselves to kill the rat."

"I think he was some sort of cat, actually." Mercury cut in.

"What? Like a puma?" Emerald said with a laugh in her voice.

"Yeah, there ya go." The silver haired assassin said, but Felix then cut in.

"Really? I thought he was too _ugly_ to be a cat, he was more like a warthog or something."

"Quiet." She ended the debate, before turning to her two personal pawns. "Did I not _specifically_ instruct you two to keep your hands clean while in Vale?" She scolded 

"I just thought-" Cinder cut off her green haired pawn.

"Don't think... obey."

"Yes ma'am." Emerald said in an appropriately apologetic tone. "It won't happen again."

Satisfied with the apology, Cinder turned to her hired help. "And _you._ Why wasn't this job done sooner?"

"Uh..? Hello!" Roman gestured broadly at the mountains of crates of dust around them. " _Sorry_ if we've been busy stealing _every_ speck of Dust in the Kingdom!"

"Yeah, you think this shit is easy?" Felix contributed. "We've went through every store, shipment and deposit of this stuff."

Mercury made a sceptical noise, causing Felix to chuckled and put his arm around him.

"Look around, kid. Me and Locus- I mean Roman, we've got this town running scared! Police running around like headless chickens, Dust prices through the roof, _and_ we're sitting pretty on an old warehouse with enough Dust crystals, vials, and _rounds_ to fund _both_ armies of Chorus off years!"

"Speaking of which." Roman spoke up. " _If_ you guys wouldn't mind filling me _in_ on your grand master plan, it _might_ actually make my next string of robberies go a little _smoother!_ " He emphasised with a clenched fist.

Cinder gave a wicked smile, it seems like he still had no idea about the plan. Good.

Taking her time, she walked up to her partners in crime. "Oh, Roman. Have a little faith." She placed her hand on his face for effect. "You'll know what you need when you need to know it." Like how she would _take care_ of him and possibly Felix once everything was said and done.

"Besides, we're done with Dust." She had looked over the numbers herself, it would be more than enough to both placate her _friends_ at the White Fang _and_ blow a hole into Vale when the time was right. She started to walk away, it was time her master got a report.

"Whats next boss?" Felix called out.

"We're moving. Have the White Fang clear out this building. I'll send you details and coordinates tonight." She informed them.

"Great. Just as I was getting comfy." Felix said sarcastically at the same time his partner asked "Coordinates?"

"We're proceeding to phase two." Was all she said.

Today was a good day.

* * *

Things were quite at the campfire.

Qrow was currently drinking from his flask, while he watched his new 'friend' repair a bullet hole in her side.

The camp site they had found was not far from the town, so risk of Grimm attack was slightly lower than usual, but he'd still set up a watch system when the time came.

Setting his flask down, Qrow decided that now the prime opportunity to talk, mostly because his flask had finally run out of alcohol.

"So.....i'm guessing that you've got some extensive prosthetics." He said casually, some people could be really touchy about the subject but he hoped he picked a reasonable conversation opener. In response she gave a small chuckle.

"Somethin' like that." She told him, causing curiosity to get the better of him.

"How extensive?" 

"Oh, it covers uh, my entire body." Tex said as she fiddled with the bullet wound.

"Uh....what?" Qrow said intelligently.

"It's a bit of a long story." Tex told him. "And it's very out there, you'd probably think i'm crazy."

At this she moved her hands away from the bullet wound, which had finally stopped sparking.

Leaning his back against a tree, Qrow gave a chuckle of his own. "Try me. I've heard everything." The immortal queen of the Grimm, gods, resurrection, magical maidens, Qrow doubted that she had anything new to add to the list of weird things he knew about.

"Well, i'm from a parallel universe, and came here after being killed by an E.M.P." Tex informed him.

Well.....that as a new one.

Qrow took a moment to consider exactly what she had just said. 

"You...uh, mind running that by me again?" He asked.

"It's a bit of a story, but the short version is simple. I'm an A.I created for a military project in my world. I found out they were torturing another A.I and went rouge to save him. Then I found that same A.I again, went on some adventures with him, before I was captured by the Meta, and destroyed in an E.M.P." Tex explained her story. "But obviously, that is a very simple version of my story and doesn't give nearly enough detail, but that's the short of it."

"That's quite a story." But again, not the craziest he'd heard, Oz still held that record.

Speaking of Oz, if what she was saying is true then he'd want to be told about this in person. Qrow wouldn't be able to risk telling him over scroll.

"Right, here's the deal Tex." Qrow started. "I wanna here _all_ of your story. then in return, I can get you to someone who can help, with your, uh _situation_."

Tex remained quite for a moment and then her body language change like at the bar and her head snapped to attention.

 **"Why should we trust you fool?"** Omega spoke, causing Qrow to lean forward.

"Cause the worlds a dangerous place. And i'm all the back up you'd have to fight against it." He spoke confidently.

 **"We can manage."** Omega said defiantly. 

"Maybe, but how far would you get without a guide?" He retorted.

 **"Listen well-"** Omega started threateningly, but was cut off by his better half. "Fuck off O'Malley!" Tex roared, punching a nearby tree sending it toppling over to make a point.

"Qrow, we'll take the deal." Tex informed him, which was good, but because of the overwhelming negativity caused by her A.I, they'd probably have to get moving before the Grimm moved in.

"Great, we can start now, cause we've gotta get movin'." He told the solider.

"Alright, but fair warning, It's about 20 hours long and I only enjoy telling it in five minute intervals."

Qrow laughed, "Alright. get to it." He said as he began to put out the campfire.

"Well the best place to start would be in a shitty canyon called Blood Gulch....."

* * *

At exactly 05:00 A.M Blake's alarm went off on her scroll, and her arm immediately shot out to silence it.

With a yawn the cat faunus began the slow task of getting out of bed, which was hard considering how comfy it was this morning. But still she got up anyway.

She'd fallen asleep inside her regular clothes and not her pyjamas last night, so a change in clothes was probably in order.

Heading to her drawer, she fished out an identical set of clothes to here regular attire, quickly put them on. 

Now dressed, Blake went to the door. The reason she was up so early today, was that she was busy researching the White Fang. Ever sense the docks her former allegiances where at the forefront of her mind.

Why did they need so much dust?

Why where they working with a human?

She needed answers.

So carefully she made her way to the library, only stopping quickly at the cafeteria briefly for coffee and a quick breakfast. 

When she arrived at the library, it was just opening. The Liberian was quite literally unlocking the doors.

"Oh, good morning Blake!" The librarian greeted. "Isn't this a _bit_ early?" He asked with concern.

"No." Was all she said in response. The librarian gave a shrug and opened the library doors. Blake enter the great beacon library and selected a table seat that was out of the way. Setting down her food, the cat faunus searched for and found some specific books.

Those books were; _D_ _ust, Schnees And The White Fang: A Story Of Spite_ by Antony Beevor, _A History Of Human and Faunus Relations: Fifth Edition_ by Bartholomew Oobleck and S _emblance: What Is It?_ by Pietro Polendina.

Her choice of books were deliberate, Beevor's book dealt with dust in relation to the white fang and would hopefully shed light on their motives. Ooblecks book was famous for being incredibly unbiased and a fantastic read. But the last book was part of Blake's attempt to research the other lingering thread left by the docks.

Her team leader Ruby Rose.

When she'd first met her future team leader, due to a comment she had made, Blake had considered that Ruby might have been an Atlas military operative, but Blake had dropped the theory after a few weeks as she couldn't find much more evidence than that original comment.

But now she was investigating ruby for a different reason. she had a second semblance.

It had made an appearance at the docks where Ruby used it instinctively to save her own life. To the red leaders credit, she seemed just as surprised as the rest of them that she had a secondary semblance. So Blake decided to research this topic as well, just because the rest of her team seemed willing to not talk about it didn't mean Blake was.

Books in hand, she returned to the table and opened the first one.

It was time to get to work.

* * *

"Sector is clear." He radioed in.

"Good, move to the next private." The female voice of Atlas command replied.

"Rodger that, private Hudson out." He turned off his radio, his battalion had been bought into vale with the rest of general ironwoods forces, the general himself gave the command for them to investigate the run down areas on the outskirts of the city. He and his squad were currently investigating an old dust storage warehouse.

"Hey Vasquez! time to move out." Hudson waited but received no reply from his friend. "Come on, cut the crap! Where are you?" He called out.

A few moments later her voice called out from a corridor on his right.

"Over here! I've got something!"

Not wasting time with speaking he barrelled into the corridor her voice had come from, his gun in hand.

But he found nothing. "What the hell?" He whispered to himself, when the wall at the end of the corridor suddenly was lit up but a spotlight, revealing something.

Steadily he approached the wall and saw that it bore a symbol, it was probably an huntsman's emblem but not any he'd ever seen before.

It was blood red and seemed to be dripping down the wall, but other than that it was surprisingly elegant. Hudson touched the symbol, but as he did he realised that it was made out of blood.

He turned to flee when someone caught him in a choke hold from behind. Hudson tried to struggle, but whoever it was was too strong.

And moments later, he fell to the floor neck in an unnatural position.

His last thoughts being of the attacker he couldn't see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> This first bit is a look into the mind of cinder, getting her thoughts on the situation. 
> 
> There isn't much to say about Qrow and Tex here, only that their subplot will be going to strange and awesome places.
> 
> I had a lot of fun with Blake here, as par for the course her unhealthy volume 2 white fang obsession is kicking in. 
> 
> the names of the soldiers in the final part of the chapter are a reference to Aliens. although the identity of their killer remains unknown, so feel free to speculate.
> 
> as always all reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are welcome.
> 
> and as always, thank you everyone for readying and i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	5. The Ghost That Lingers

"You alright Rubes?" Yang asked her sister.

"Fine. Just fin-" Ruby cut herself off with a yawn. Her younger sister didn't look like she had slept much last night. Probably from staying up on her scroll again.

"Whatever you say." Yang rolled her eyes. "Just get yourself some coffee."

The trio of Yang, Pyrrha and Ruby where currently taking their seats at the cafeteria, getting some lunch with their friends at team SALN. 

"Here Ruby, you can have mine." Pyrrha kindly offered as they all sat down with their individual lunches.

"It's okay Pyrrha i'm fine." Ruby said sleepily, the she then dug into her lunch without another word.

"Wheres Blake?" Jaune asked in greeting from across the table.

"Dunno, library maybe." Yang told him with a shrug and then bit into the burger she had gotten for lunch.

The teams sat in silence as lunch was ate by all parties. Then, Jaune pulled out his scroll and typed something into it. A small ding came from Weiss's scroll causing the heiress to pull it out and type in something of her own.

This pinged Yang's own curiosity, what were they talking about?

The texting conversation continued for a few minutes, with Weiss looking more and more stern and jaune more and more defeated.

Eventually Yang had enough and with all the grace of a rampaging Grimm, stole Jaune's scroll out of his hands, and took a look at the latest message.

[We don't have to do this now. I can try and ask Pyrrha out tomorrow.] 

A smile grew on Yang's face. This was just too good.

Yang handed the scroll back to Jaune who had went white in the face. 

"You wanna tell her, or should I?" Yang asked vomit boy rhetorically.

This got the attention of the others at the table who looked at Jaune curiously, causing him in turn to look at Weiss.

"Don't look at me." The heiress told her partner.

This caused Jaune to turn to Pyrrha as Yang leaned forward to watch the show.

"Pyrrha?" He said the Spartans name like a question.

"Yes Jaune?" The girl in question asked.

"I was, uh wondering if maybe you- only if you want to, if you would like to, um go and see a movie with me?" Jaune awkwardly asked her, his face red in embarrassment.

All heads turned to look at Pyrrha as a strange look came over Pyrrha's face. 

"Like a date?" She asked, tone betraying nothing.

"Yes."

Then Pyrrha gave a smile so wide, warm and genuine that only she could give it. "I would be _more_ than happy to." She told him.

"What movie are you guys going to see?" Ruby asked excitedly, the scene seemingly curing her previous tiredness.

"Oh, I was thinking _The Huntsman Rises_ , if that's okay with you Pyrrha." Jaune replied

"Fine by me."

"Wait!" Ruby called out dramatically. "What about our plans to play _remnant the game_ later?"

Huh, Yang had kinda forgotten they'd made plans to play that this afternoon as a team.

"Don't worry Ruby." Pyrrha reassured her partner, "While I will not be there, i'm sure that Weiss will be more than happy to take my place."

Yang had to blink. Did _Pyrrha Nikos_ of all people, just throw Weiss under the buss and to the wolves, just so she could go on a date? Yang didn't think she had it in her.

Weiss for her part seemed to be frozen in shock, while Ruby yelled out, "That's so cool!"

"Ohhhh, can we join in?" Nora butted in as Jaune and Pyrrha got up and went away.

"Sorry but it's only a four player game, but i'm sure that ice queen will want your help with winning." Yang said casually.

Weiss snapped out of her stupor. "I did not agree to that." She snapped.

"Princess, what gave you the idea that _you_ had a say in this?" Yang retorted

Weiss's protests were music to her ears.

* * *

Today's search went about as well as Church expected.

That is to say it sucked.

"Penny?"

"Yes mister Church?" The girl in question replied.

"Why are we on the roof of this same warehouse, for the fourth day in a row?" Church asked, using his well of patience reserved exclusively for Caboose and children.

"Because, the last time I met Ruby, she was here, and social convention indicates that she will return here again to hang out." Penny explained cheerfully.

Church had to sigh, sure it had been years sense he had been a kid, (no matter what _Washington_ said), but he was fairly certain that kids typically didn't hang around the top of warehouses more than once.

"Right, uh Penny." Church tried to say. "Ya see, we've tried looking here for Ruby like four nights in a row. Don't ya think we should ya know check other places a teenager might go?" We asked.

Penny blinked twice in succession. "Where do my fellow teenagers go to?" She asked, throwing the ghost off his game.

Did she literally never leave the house?

"Well, um uh don't they go to the cinema or cafes or sh- stuff like that?" Church quickly replaced the swear, he might not be the _best_ person, but you shouldn't really swear in front of kids.

Penny blinked again. "There are 5 cafes in our local area, the nearest is close to a popular cinema." Penny informed him

"How do you-" 

"We should go now to have a greater chance of finding Ruby." Penny quickly cut Church off.

"Alright." He sighed. "Lets go."

The journey to the cafe only took ten minutes, the cafe itself was quite nice sporting a very classical look, with a weapon rack at the door and several tables outside.

"This the place?" Church asked rhetorically.

"Affirmative." Penny said, but something with her tone was off.

"Whats wrong kid?" Church asked. 

"I have to leave now mister Church." Penny said sadly, pointing at a pair of soldiers in armour, working their way to penny through the crowd. "Those two are the people that general ironwood assigned to look after me."

Penny then turned her head to the cafe and pointed at a couple in one of the outside tables. "That woman is Pyrrha Nikos, she is a friend of Ruby's." Penny explained.

"Thanks kid." Church told her sincerely, it was pretty sad that this _teenage girl_ was the most competent person he'd worked with sense Tex.

"Your welcome mister Church!" Penny exclaimed, "When you see Ruby, tell her salutations from me!"

With that the orange haired girl ran off, causing the two soldiers that had almost reached her through the crowd to swear.

With Penny gone, Church wandered over to the couple she'd pointed out. A blonde guy that had a real dork vibe coming from him and a red haired girl, who looked familiar, but he couldn't quite ~~reMEmbeR~~.

Shaking his head, Church got close enough to hear the conversation.

"-That final set piece was awesome!" The blonde said a tad too loudly. 

"It was very.... _explosive_." The red haired chick replied uncomfortably, she probably didn't enjoy the movie then.

Completely misreading the tone, blonde nodded enthusiastically. "i know right!? it's just like in the comics where-"

Church tuned out the rest of his ramblings as he got up right next to them at their table.

Then he noticed something new, they both had, what Church would call a feeling about them. It was the same feeling he first felt when he was around Penny, although he'd dismissed it at first. The sorta feeling he had about the duo extended to a bunch of the others in the cafe, mostly those with weapons. What made them different from everyone else?

Out of curiosity Church leaned forward to the blonde dude, who was still in the middle of his comic book explanation, and church touched him and was relived to feel a very familiar sensation.

"Wa-kika-herger!" 

Church blinked with actual human eyes.

And smiled. He had a body now! An actual human body! Church felt like dancing things were finally looking up!

"Jaune?" A concerned voice came from across the table. "Are you alright?" The red head asked.

The same red head that was blonde guy's (who he had possessed) date.

The same red head he knew nothing about. 

The same red head he needed to find the others.

Fuck.

* * *

This was the most important choice she would ever have to make.

Apon her was a choice that would make or break her entire campaign.

"Are you going to play the game or just sit there staring at it?" Weiss snapped grumpily at Ruby, pulling her out of focus.

"No, she's just thinking about how badly she's going to loose." Her tyrannical sister taunted.

Ruby ignored this and went back to her dilemma. Attack Yang or Weiss?

On one hand Weiss's force had not yet recovered from her attacking her own airships, on the other Yang's last assault had left a critical hole in her defence that Ruby could exploit. 

Her situation was not helped by the peanut gallery, as Wash and Sarge argued over every tactical decision.

"I'm telling you now is the moment to strike!" Sarge yelled at Wash, who retorted with "Have you considered that this might be a trap?"

Ruby then made her decision, yang was getting too powerful, especially sense Weiss both didn't know how to play and had a peanut gallery of her own in Ren and Nora, while Blake seemed distracted ever sense they had interrupted her studying session.

"Yang Xiao Long" Ruby started dramatically. "Prepare your kingdom for battle!

"Bring it on!" Yang challenged as Sarge cheered and Wash groaned.

"I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" She slapped her card down on the table. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!" She Made noises like airplanes flying and bombing as she made a bird with her hands _._

"You fiend!" Yang said dramatically as she pointed at Ruby.

Ducking down to table level Ruby continued "And since Atlas is part of Mantle, my repair time is only one turn." But as she peaked her head back up, Yang laughed arrogantly. 

"Pretty sneaky sis." Yang said with a grin as she raised a card. "But you just activated my trap card!" Ruby's eye's widened, she knew she should have gotten Caboose to look at Yang's cards!

" _G_ _iant Nevermore!"_ Yang exclaimed as She slammed the card down on the table. "If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

" _But_ , if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!" Ruby pointed out with desperate hope.

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take."

They glared at each other, as the dice rolled, rolled into a solid eight. Yang gave a shout of triumph. 

"Nooooo!!! My fearless soldiers!" Ruby mourned

"Eh, most of them were probably androids." Yang shrugged indifferently. 

"Goodbye my friends, you will be avenged." Ruby promised, but her darkest hour was far from over.

"Not until I draw my rewards! Which are _double_ this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route!"

"Bah!" She said defiantly.

"Oh, and what's this? The smugglers of wind path?" Yang rubbed the salt in her wound.

"Bah! _Bah_ , I say!" 

Yang laughed "I say, it looks like I'm taking two cards in my hand!"

"Have you no heart?" Ruby begged her sister before collapsing on the chair.

"I always knew she was more of a blue than red." Sarge said solemnly, looking at Yang.

"You said the opposite last week." Wash reminded him.

Satisfied that her sister's forces were crush, she turned to the heiress. "Well, Weiss, it's your turn."

"I have... absolutely no idea what's going on." Weiss told them bluntly.

Yang moved up beside her and put her hand on her shoulder. "Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus." The blonde brawler explained

"That sounds dumb." Weiss said bluntly.

Yang being the cheater she was, looked through Weiss's cards. "See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... Oh, oh! Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet—"

Would this nightmare ever end!? 

"—And put it in _your_ hand!"

" _Okay._ " The heiress's eyes narrowed.

"And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable _my_ ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!" Yang explained before pointing a finger at Weiss. "Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war." 

With that Yang returned to her seat.

"And that means..." Weiss trailed off, as Ruby did the math in her head.

"You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!" Ruby gasped. Why would Yang do this!?

Weiss stood and gave an evil laugh "Y-yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms!"

"Trap card." Yang cut off the hammy and melodramatic speech.

"Huh?"

Yang shuffled the pieces on the board, causing Weiss' pieces to disappear in a puff of smoke. "Your armies have been destroyed."

Weiss slumped in her chair. "I hate this game of emotions we play." She whined

"This is _far_ better than any TV show." Nora whispered not-so-quietly to Ren, who nodded in agreement. "Agreed."

Yang put her arms behind her head and leaned back. "Alright Blake, you're up!"

The faunus in question snapped to attention. "Oh, um, sorry, what am I doing?" Blake asked.

"You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the Kingdoms of Remnant!" Yang explained.

"Right." Was the only reply.

"Right." Blake repeated. "Well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later." With that Blake got up and just left the group without a further word.

"What was that about?" Yang asked Ruby, who could only shrug. Ruby didn't know either, but it worried her, so she was going to find out.

"I think I shall also fold." Weiss claimed, sensing an out.

"Alright, might as well pack it up." Yang said reluctantly.

And with that, _Remnant The Game_ ended with no clear winner.

Only one frustrated ice queen and two sisters, concerned for their friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> This was a fun chapter to put together, and now we're getting right into the thick of volume 2. 
> 
> If it didn't come across as clear in the chapter, Church is able to possess characters with an unlocked aura. Other than that there is nothing else to note.
> 
> As always, feel free to comment, leave a review or give some constructive criticism.
> 
> After the last chapter, a lot of people seem to believe that the Meta was the killer of the two soldiers. My response is this: No comment.
> 
> As always, thank you everyone for reading, and i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	6. Save The Date!

It left something of a hallow feeling, knowing that her White Fang codes no longer worked.

It made her defection from the White Fang more.... _real_ , more _solid_.

Still, she wouldn't let that stop her.

Blake tried another code, one she'd gotten from an old friend, into her scroll.

Currently Blake was trying to access the white fang secret website, it required a lot of hoops to jump through in order to reach it, but she knew all of the shortcuts.

Blake typed in Ilia's code and those always great words 'access granted' appeared on screen.

She'd have to act quickly, as a security measure the website always sends an email to the persons scroll when their code is activated outside the main camp.

Quickly browsing through the site, Blake found what she was looking for, White Fang meetings in vale.

Scanning the page, Blake found out that they were having weekly meetings on Saturdays at eight pm. 

It was only six...... if she rushed down she could make it.....

As she contemplated the new information the door to the dorm room opened, letting Yang and Ruby into the room.

"-And then Nora bursts in and says-"

"Whats with the katana?" Ruby cut her sister off with a groan. "You've told me that story twice, find better stories."

Electing to ignore her teammates and move forward with the plan, Blake logged out and closed her scroll and got up to leave. But when she got to the door, Yang blocked her exit.

"Where do you think your going?" Her partner asked.

"Out." Blake said as monotone as she could manage.

"Yeah..... no." Yang casually told her. "You are going to tell us what's wrong, and where your _really_ going."

"Yeah Blake." Ruby stepped towards her, "We're teammates, you need to tell us whats wrong so we can help!"

Blake sighed. "I just, I don't understand how everyone can be so _calm._ "

Ruby took another step towards her. "You're still thinking about Torchwick?

"Torchwick, the White Fang, _all of it!_ Something _big_ is happening and no one is doing anything about it!" Blake let out her frustrations with the situation.

"Ozpin told us not to worry." Yang chipped in. "Between the police and the Huntsmen, I'm sure they can handle it."

"Well I'm _not!_ They don't know the White Fang like I do!" She retorted.

"Like you do?" Ruby questioned.

"Well my parents _were_ the founders..." Blake deadpanned.

"Right." Ruby nodded and raised her hand. "Well I for one, am all for becoming one of the youngest Huntresses to single-handedly taking down a corrupt organisation conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale." 

Yang pumped her fist enthusiastically and pointed at Blake. "Yes! I _love_ it when you're feisty!"

"Thanks guys." Blake smiled as something occurred to her. "Should we bring Pyrrha into this?" She asked.

Ruby shook her head. "No. She's on her date with Jaune."

"Well here's hoping that their date is going smoothly." Blake's eyes narrowed. "Now, lets plan."

* * *

The date as it happened had been going smoothly, that was until Church had shown up.

Now the spirit was in the body of a blonde guy named Jaune, on a date with a strangely familiar looking red head named Pyrrha.

Why couldn't the universe give him a break for more than five consecutive minutes?

"Are you alright Jaune?" Pyrrha repeated to Church, although she didn't know it was him.

"I'm uh, fine totally fine." Church said convincingly.

Pyrrha seemed unconvinced. "Are you sure? What was that noise you made?" she asked concerned.

Thinking on his feat, Church though of a lie fast.

"It was a noise from the comics." Church explained, they had been talking about comics right?

She looked at him weirdly, "Right."

They both fell into an awkward silence.

Not wanting to ruin the poor kids date, Church said the first thing that came to his mind.

"So, you... having a good day?" Church asked, wincing inwardly at his wooden delivery. He could do better than this!

But to his surprise Pyrrha smiled warmly at him, "Jaune this date and day have been absolutely lovely."

"Cool, cool, is your coffee nice?" Church asked, to keep up the conversation using his experience with Tex.

"Jaune this is tea."

"Ah right, tea, I _totally_ meant tea." Pyrrha giggled at 'Jaune.'

Once her laughter subsided, Pyrrha looked at some kid of holographic thing.

"It's getting late, we should go back to beacon." The red head told him.

"Yeah, yeah, totally." Where and what the hell was Beacon?

They both got up out of their seats, or more accurately, pyrrha got up out of her seat, while church tried to, but it had been a _long_ time sense he had a human body, rather than his robot or ghost one. As a result he fell onto the floor trying to use his legs.

"Jaune!"

Son of a bitch!" Church let the curse slip out

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked as she rushed to help him up, but stopped when she saw his foot, which caused her to frown. "Why didn't you put your Aura up?"

Aura? What the hell was that? 

"Well, you see uh..." Church trailed off, then the sound of explosions was heard.

Saved by the bell.

Pyrrha stood up and looked in the direction of the explosions.

"Jaune wait here, I need to check this out." The spartan girl said as she went to the nearby weapon rack to get a javelin and shield.

"Alright, stay safe!" He called out as she ran off in the direction of the explosion.

With her out of site, Church exited Jaune's body, causing the blonde dork to pass out.

Time to see what was going on.

* * *

_A few minutes earlier...._

"Is this it?"

"This is it." Blake confirmed for Ruby and unbeknown to her Wash.

The grey freelancer had elected to follow the pair once Sarge and Caboose had elected to follow Yang to the club for underworld information rather than sitting in a 'boring' rally.

So it was just Wash, besides if things did get violent then Wash was the only one of the trio that could help. That is assuming he and Ruby could still 'combine' like at the docks.

"Right you remember the plan?" Blake asked the young team leader.

"I stay quiet, if anyone wants to know what type of faunus I am, I say i'm a dog faunus and my trait is a tail, but it was cut off by humans." Ruby recited.

"Good." Blake bought out two Grimm masks. "Put this on." 

"Why do we need masks?" Ruby asked, frowning at said mask.

"The masks are a symbol." Blake explained. "Humanity wanted to make monsters out of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters."

"Sounds about right." Wash chuckled darkly.

Ruby frowned again, but put the mask on without further complaints.

The pair then entered the building, following the other recruits as they were led into a large area. Wash noted the positions of the guards as he went, taking note of positions, weapons and numbers. He also kept an eye out for possible escape routes in case things went sideways, as they inevitably seemed to do. 

The group then stopped, there was a massive stage, most likely for whoever was speaking at the rally.

What Wash could only assume was a high ranking member of the White Fang stepped onto the stage, causing the recruits to all go quite.

"Thank you all for coming." He spoke. "For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!"

Then from stage right, Roman Torchwick came onto the stage. but something else had gotten Wash's attention. 

Above Roman, on top of the catwalk, was a man in very familiar, armour sporting a scout helmet coloured steel with an orange trim.

It was Felix.

And the mercenary was looking right at Wash, Ruby and Blake.

Son of a bitch.

Wash turned to Ruby and waved his hand in front of her face to get her attention. 

"Ruby! We need to go now!" He told her frantically.

Ruby tilted her head in a confused fashion. "Why?" Ruby whispered.

"Felix. Felix is here." He told her pointing at the mercenary in question, who waved at the pair, causing her silver eyes to widen. Wash and the other had told her a great many stories about Felix.

"What do we do?" 

Under his helmet, Wash's eyes narrowed they had a few options, but most of them would likely end in a fight.

"Ruby do you think we could...combine like at the docks?" Wash asked her. "It would improve our chances."

Ruby hesitated for a moment before nodding and holding out her hand.

Wash took it, and felt the same strange sensation at the docks, and suddenly he was in Ruby's head. Thankfully unlike last time the glowing armour didn't appear, meaning that no unwelcome attention was gathered.

"( _You alright Ruby?_ )" Wash asked, it was a weird sensation, talking without a mouth. he wondered if this was how the Alpha felt when he was in his robot body.

"Fine." Ruby mumbled, looking down at the floor. A downside of being inside Ruby's head was that he could only see what she saw.

"( _Ruby, is Felix still there?_ )" Wash asked.

Ruby looked up, but Felix was absent from the catwalk. 

Things had just become a lot harder.

Then Torchwick snapped his fingers catching the pairs attention, as the curtain fell revealing a Atlesian Paladin-290 behind it, the mark of the White Fang painted on its shoulder.

"How did he get that?" Blake asked next to them, her tone clearly shocked.

"As some of you may have heard, this right here..." Torchwick tapped the mech. "...Is Atlas's newest defence against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my 'employer', we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, 'hit the shelves'. Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine... But if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?"

There was none as the room was filled with the applause of all the white fang members.

Then once the applause had died down, Felix appeared stage left, and walked over to Torchwick.

"I have a question." The merc told Torchwick, who smiled. 

"Everyone, this is my partner Felix, someone you will be working with very closely in the new operation." Roman turned his body to face his partner. "Now, whats your question?"

"Do you think its possible for us to have a... _demonstration_ of our new toy's abilities?" Felix asked in a faux curious tone.

"Do you have any targets in mind?"

"Yes." Felix dramatically pointed at Blake and Ruby/Wash. "The traitor, and the human would do nicely"

Blake and Ruby's eyes widened dramatically at Felix's declaration.

Thinking fast, Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud, transformed it into a pistol, and shot at a fuse box, making the lights go out for the whole building.

Blake grabbed Ruby's hand and they jumped for the window as torchwick cried out "Don't let them get away!"

Crashing threw the window, everyone ran as fast as they could, as the Paladin crashed through the side of the building, and fired a rocket at them, causing a massive explosion that they narrowly avoided.

"( _We need back up!_ )" Wash yelled at Ruby, who agreed and began to call her sisters scroll.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> There isn't much to say in overall notes for this particular chapter, except that now Wash, and soon the others now know that Felix is in Remnant. And that we can expect Church to have a happy(?) reunion with the others in the near future.
> 
> In other news, I have a question for everyone, with the Beacon dance mid volume, would you guy's be interested in a minor ladybug pairing? (That's Ruby/Blake for those that don't know.) It wouldn't be very major, but I do quite like the pairing, so if you dudes would be interested in seeing it, please let me know.
> 
> As always thanks to everyone who has read, commented and reviewed the story, as it all means a lot to me.
> 
> Next time, everyone can expect a robot rampage, but till then thanks for reading, and i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	7. Painting The Town Blue

There was nothing quite like the thrill of a good chase. Chasing down the target as they tried to outsmart you, only to realise that it was useless and that they were doomed to fail.

As such, Felix elected to take the paladin chase the two kids and freelancer.

Well, that and Felix also wanted to try out what a battle mech was like in this universe.

Spoiler alert: so far it was fucking awesome.

Landing on the highway with a thump, Felix continued to chase the two kids, (he should really learn their names at some point), and smacked cars let and right.

Seeing that they were maintaining a good speed ahead of him, Felix opted for a different approach, picking up on of the passing cars and ignoring the screams of those inside. He threw the car a head of the cat lady and the small kid, causing a massive explosion on impact as it hit a truck, stopping them in their tracks.

Seeing the duo turn to face him, Felix activated the speaker system.

"You know, you shouldn't cross highways, it can be very bad for your health." Felix informed them, in response they both readied their weapons, a comically oversized sythe, and a fricking _katana._

"Really, your going with swords and gardening tools?" Felix laughed, "Alright, lets see if your any _good_ with them."

At this proclamation, Felix swung him robotic fist at them, causing the pair of the to scatter, but before he could follow up he got an unusual sensor reading behind him, prompting Felix to turn around just in time to see a bright yellow motorcycle slam right into his mech. This causing the prototype the land flat on its back and caused Felix to feel a tad pissed off.

Fiddling with the controls, Felix got the mech back on it's feet, now seeing that the blonde chick had joined the other two. Just great. Not to be dissuaded from the fight, Felix fired a missile right at the blonde and charged at the catgirl swinging his fist at her, only for her body to evaporate before his very eyes. Felix was then taken aback by the small one slamming her sythe right into the paladin nearly sending Felix off the end of the highway.

Yeah... that simply wouldn't do. 

Regaining his footing, Felix prepared for the next swing of the sythe and when it came, he side stepped it and grabbed the sythe, taking it's owner by surprise. Grinning, Felix pulled the sythe closer and grabbed its owner. With the kid in hand Felix started squeezing, and to his delight the same semi transparent armour he'd observed at the docks appeared, protecting the kid.

"Hello Washington." Felix greeted, "It's been a while, hows Carolina?" The kid that Wash was hiding in gave no response except struggling. Disappointing but eh, whatever.

The armour then registered several explosive impacts to his left, of course it was the blonde chick again. "Leave ruby alone!" She roared as she charged head on at him, really living up to that 'dumb blonde' stereotype.

With his expert aim, Felix threw the girl he now knew as ruby at the blonde chick, nailing her right in the head.

Felix had to laugh, these three were weak.

Wait, these _three_. Where was catgirl?

Several warnings popped up on the interface about the back fuel storage. Ah _there_ she was.

With a surprising degree on agility Felix quickly picked up the faunus from his back and threw her to the floor of the highway. He then raised his fist and threw it to the ground, ready to crush her...

Only for it to stop mere inches away. He tried to make the fist go fully down, but the controls were not responding, then without warning, his own robotic fist hit the paladin right in the face.

As the mech regained its footing a new player entered the fray, the final one of the little group, Pyrrha Nikos. (the only reason he knew her name was because she was on the cereal he ate.)

"Now things are going to get fun." Felix spoke into the speaker, but that system was broken by that last attack. As his former partner would often say; unfortunate.

Now everyone was here, facing him, and the blonde was on fire for some reason. Felix made his mech strike the universal 'bring it' pose.

"Ladybug!" Ruby shouted, still glowing in the transparent armour, as she shot herself forward and sliced at the robot's legs, while catgirl aimed herself at the giant's feet as well. They both dashed forward and attacked at the same time, circling each other around the Paladin with each strike, faster than Felix could react in the mech, until they both launched themselves into the air and come down together his left shoulder, cutting off the left arm entirely.

Fuck, that was bad.

Not wasting any time, blonde launched herself from Niko's shield, slamming right into the centre of the mech, Felix's own controls not responding, and she started the deliver fiery punches that punched off most of the chest armour, sending Felix right to the edge of the high way, thinking fast he grabbed the fiery girl and jumped right off the edge, he let go of her as they went into free fall, but in a manner of complete bullshit, the blonde suddenly stopped mid air and started going right back up towards the high way.

Felix's landing was rough and the mech was totalled, but Felix himself was fine, so he counted this in the 'win' category.

Breathing heavily, Felix left the mech and ran.

By the time the brats got to the mech, he was long gone.

* * *

It was a shame that Felix was gone when Sarge finally arrived to the scene of the crime, he would've enjoyed introducing the mercenary to his shotgun, once got it back of course.

By time he'd gotten there the police and Atlas military where on scene, interrogating team RPBY and securing the mech respectively.

His first course of action had been to talk with good ol' agent Washington and find out exactly how the blue had messed the mission up.

And that led to him informing the red leader about Felix.

"Damn dirty mercenary's." Sarge grumbled, causing Wash to nod gravely.

"Him being here and with a physical body will make things harder for us, _especially_ sense he seems to have allied himself with the White Fang." Washington stated the obvious like a blue would.

"Good. Maybe they'll be more of a challenge next time." 

Wash gave on of those long sighs he liked to give, mostly when he caught Sarge giving advice to Ruby. 

"Hey, where's Caboose?" The blue team leader suddenly asked, causing Sarge to look around.

"I dunno, coulda sworn he was here a second ago...." Sarge replied, it always seemed like Caboose was away doing something.

As if on Que, in a way that _only_ Caboose could achieve, a loud scream of "Yes!" Echoed through the kingdom of Vale.

Both Sarge and Wash simultaneously made their way over to see what had made Caboose so exited, but as they got closer another voice could be heard.

"God fucking dammit!" 

The duo paused that voice, it was very familiar, then they ran right to the source of the voice, and came face to face with Church, in a deadly bear-hug being administered by Caboose.

"Let go of me!" church screamed, at the same time caboose was saying "church! Church! you're here! We can go shopping and climbing and eat ice cream and..."

Caboose continued to list off all the things he and his 'best friend' would do together, while Church beginning to say increasingly creative swears.

Having had enough of the pillow talk, Sarge gave a sharp whistle that got Church and Caboose's attention.

Caboose kept a tight grip on Church and came over like a exited puppy with a toy in its mouth.

"Agent Washington, sergeant I found Church!" Caboose exclaimed, holding Church up proudly.

Seeing that the cobalt trooper was still struggling, Wash said "Caboose, could you set Church down?"

"Of course Agent Washingtub!" Caboose continued to yell, it seems that finding Church has removed all volume control from the one person who really needed it. God help them all.

Once he had been set down, Church immediately began talking deep heavy breaths. After a minute of this the blue pulled himself back up to his full height.

"Washington? Sarge?" Church questioned. "You guys are here too?"

"That's right, good to see you again Church." Wash nodded, then the freelancer asked an important question. "Church, whats the last thing you remember?"

"You as a matter of fact." Church answered immediately. " _Specifically_ me telling you that _I_ am a motherfucking ghost. Which, by the way is now proven totally correct, so you know, suck it Washington."

"Ahhhhhh, so you're the Alpha, not Epsilon." Wash nodded again.

"What? No, no, no, no, no." Church objected. "I though we settled this! I am Leonard Church, I am not your fucking Alpha A.I, no fucking way."

Church then though for a moment. "Also why the fuck would you mistake me for Epsilon, who is your shitty broken A.I, explain that!"

"We've got a lot of catching up to do blue." Sarge stepped forward and chuckled.

Then, before anyone could say anything else, Ruby walked onto the scene.

"Well guys, we've just finished talking to the police, Ozpin bailed us out and-" Ruby stopped apon seeing a new solider among the regular three.

"Whose the kid?" Church asked, causing Ruby to take a few steps forward.

"Dad? Is that you?" She questioned cautiously.

"Uh, sure as hell hope not." Church shifted uncomfortably.

'This is not nice Church." Caboose explained. "This is Church Church! And he is going to stay with us forever!"

Ruby looked to Wash for a more reasonable explanation.

"Ruby this is Church, the original one." Washington explained.

"Oh! so you're the former leader of blue team?" Ruby asked innocently.

"Yeah that's me. Hi." Then Church's brain caught up to exactly what it is Ruby said. 

"What do you mean _former_ leader of blue team?"

* * *

_Meanwhile in the Beacon Guest Dormitories......_

"Hey Neptune."

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever feel like you just missed out on something?"

"No Sun, and go back to sleep."

"Cool, night dude."

"Night."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> First off we have Felix and team RPBY getting into their first skirmish, most of this was quite simple, and I had fun dreaming up a Yang/Pyrrha duo move (Pyrrha launches Yang at an enemy and subtly uses her semblance to keep them restrained while Yang beat the crap out of them), even if I couldn't think of a suitable name for it.
> 
> Next we have everyone's favourite ghost joining the Beacon gang! I had a lot of fun writing Church in this chapter, and can't wait to write more of him in the future. Especially sense this is Church as the Alpha, who I prefer over Epsilon. (But Epsilon is still awesome)
> 
> And finally, having re-watched Painting The Town.... last night, I realised I had forgotten that Sun and Neptune existed, so I gave them a little cameo at the end.
> 
> I would like to thank everyone who commented last time, such a positive reaction to my work has made me positively jumping with joy. As for the status of there being ladybug in this fic, I do think that I will go for it, even if it won't be the biggest part of the fic.
> 
> As always I would like to thank everyone for reading, and i'll see you all again next time.  
> Till then, i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	8. S.O.S

"So, let me get this straight, after you got onto the ship, you crashed into yet _another_ box canyon?" Church asked for clarification.

"Yep." Sarge replied, "Now that I think of it, it does seem like an unfortunate coincidence." He pondered, causing Church to groan, why was it _Sarge_ of all people, one of the ones stuck here with him?

"Damn, you guys really do have shitty luck." 

"You don't know the half of it." Mused Washington, causing Church to scowl something awful.

"No one said that you could talk." Church snapped at his replacement.

"Church there is no need for hostility." Wash reasoned. "You were gone, and _someone_ needed to fill that gap."

Church's scowl did not dissipate. "Whatever, just get back to the fu- i mean, the story." Church cut off the curse before young ears could hear it, as across from the room Ruby was also sitting, half listening to Oobleck's current lecture.

Well, at least they told him that the teachers name was Oobleck, despite the fact he sounded sorta like Caboose.

Speaking of... the regulation blue sim trooper spoke up to give the next bit of the story.

"Well you see, we crashed and they had a red base and we had a blue base and agent Washingtub wanted to fix the radio while tucker was stupid, then I was sad, but then I found Freckles so things were less sad." Caboose explained.

Church was now fairly certain he knew _less_ than before.

"yeah, um could somebody give me a quick and easier version of events to remember? cause i didn't understand half of that." church interrupted caboose's explanation.

"When we crashed it was on a planet called Chorus." Wash explained in a far more competent manner. "It was in the middle of a civil war that was made far longer than it should've by Charon industries who wanted to have easy access to the alien artefacts on planet."

"What, like Tuckers sword?" Church asked.

Wash nodded. "Exactly. We were split up, but eventually we were reunited and ambushed by Felix and Locus, the main enforcers of the civil war. Eventually, we managed to inform both armies about what was going on and the united to combat the threat."

"Huh, and you saw this 'Felix' guy here?" Church questioned further.

"That's right, and because he has a physical body, it means he can do a lot of damage to this world." Wash said as seriously, as only a freelancer could.

"Well he isn't the only one then." 

Church could practically see Wash's eyes narrow under his helmet. " What do you mean?"

"Well, being the incredibly kick-ass ghost I am, _I_ can still possess people." Church informed smugly.

"Sense when!?" Wash's voice climbed an octave, tearing Ruby's attention away from Oobleck's lecture.

"Uh, sense I posses that blonde guy over there, what was his name again? It was uh, Jack, James, oh! John, it was John!" Church exclaimed proudly.

Sarge stepped forward. "Uh you mean Jaune?" The red leader corrected.

"Oh whatever, it's basically the same thing. The point is I totally possessed him, and used him to find you guy's." Church explained.

"Is that why Jaune can't remember the second part of his date?" Ruby questioned in whisper, but unfortunately someone heard her.

"Miss Rose! Do you have anything to add?" Oobleck raced over to to her seat so fast Church got second hand whiplash.

"Eep! I- uh- mean- I uh, no sir." Ruby stammered out.

"Hmmmm." was all Oobleck said before returning to his lecture.

"Right, yeah that's why Jaune passed out." Church told Ruby, who only gave the briefest of nods before paying full attention to the lecture in fear of being called out again.

Then Church got an idea 

"Hey, what if I showed you that I can still possess people?" Church proposed.

"Right now?" Wash questioned.

"Right now."

"Sounds interesting enough to me blue." Sarge remarked.

"Well who do you have in mind?" Washington asked

"I already possessed that jaune kid, so lets try someone different, like the teacher guy." Church reasoned.

Church could tell that Wash was frowning under his helmet. "Church.... that is a terrible idea, we're right in the middle of class."

"You could get into trouble with principal Ozpin!" Caboose cried out.

After considering all of that information very carefully Church made his decision.

"Eh fuc- I mean _fudge_ it." 

With that wonderful example of self censorship, Church walked over to the energetic teacher, reached his hand out and the familiar sensation of possessing someone enveloped him.

"In conclusion-Wa-kika-herger!" 

Blinking twice, Church took a moment to get used to the sensation of being inside the new body.

"Sir? Are you alright?" A kid with pure white hair asked him. 

"Yeah, sure. uh what was I talking about?" Church was met by a room of blank stares. 

"You." church pointed at a random student. "Miss-"

"Xiao Long." Wash called out.

"-Xiao Long, can you uh summarise what we've been learning about in class today, as taught by me?" Church did his best teacher impression, inwardly wincing at how he sounded _exactly_ like Caboose.

"Well, uh we learned about how in the battle of.... Martyrdom, the Faunus used the surrounding dark forest to ambushed enemy forces near the end of the war." Xiao Long clearly bullshitted her way through answering.

But Church honestly didn't care. "Yeah, that is correct." Church said intellectually, causing the girl with the white hair to frown.

"But that information was barely correct!" She protested in what Church would call a posh accent. "And it misses several key factors such as General Lagune's unwillingness to retreat or battle of Waterstone only hours beforehand!" She turned to face the body Church was inhabiting. "Are you alright sir?"

Ignoring Wash's very disrespectful face palm, Sarge's "I knew this wasn't a good idea." And Caboose's jumping with his hand up to answer the question. Church formulated a sentence that would assure the class of his sanity.

"Of course I am, or my name wouldn't be Professor Oobleck!" 

Church was rewarded with strange looks from the entire class excepting for Ruby who only face palmed much like Wash had.

Clearly that didn't work for some reason. 

Time for plan B.

"Class dismissed!" Church yelled out, he then waited as the class filed out, leaving just Church, his fellow sim troopers and their freelancer.

"Well that could have gone better."

* * *

"Of course when they finally do catch up with me, they insist that the present is destroyed and that we're all now in the future."

Qrow frowned. "Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't _always_ the present?"

"Yep." Tex laughed. "But they are just a bunch of idiots, so I went along with it rather than arguing."

Currently Tex and Qrow were walking along in a swamp, which according to Qrow would take them right to a coastal city that they could get a boat or plane from. Tex personally wasn't fond of walking through swamps like during tuckers 'quest' with the alien, but still if this was the fastest way then so be it.

"Sounds like you made the right choice." Qrow told her before he held up his fist, causing the pair to stop. 

Nothing happened for a few moments as Qrow scanned the trees evidently looking for someone. He eventually stopped on a tree on their left, but as he did so a raven burst out of the tree and flew away.

Qrow sighed. "We're gonna have to move faster, were currently in bandit territory and with my luck we can probably expect an encounter soon." 

**Bandits? Sounds interesting.**

Agreeing with O'Malley for once, Tex asked. "Bandits?"

"Nothing but a bunch of killers and thieves, they move through out Anima, attacking villages and taking resources all in the name of their own survival, bunch of jerks." Qrow spat out, voice filled with a lot of venom.

"Right. How long until we can reach the end of the swamp?" Tex questioned, deciding not to question Qrow about what was clearly a loaded issue.

"About 12 hours of straight marching, provided we don't stop for a rest." 

Tex nodded. "Right, so lets get moving, and with even a minuscule amount of luck, we'll reach the end without running into trouble."

But as Tex said that last word, they found trouble in the form of what looked like a squad of soldiers that had been torn apart, their blood, limbs and equipment all over the section of the swamp they had just entered and that clearly served as the soldiers former encampment.

"Ah shit...."

Slowly making their way around the destroyed encampment Qrow knelt besides one of the soldiers that remained mostly intact.

"Omega, start being useful and give me an analysis of what happened here." Tex said aloud.

It took a few moments but the A.I quickly gave his idea of what happened and briefly took control of the body to give both Tex and Qrow his report.

**"Six soldiers, all decently armed and equipped, but not for this environment, they most likely crash landed as evidenced by burns on one of them. after landing they tried sending out an S.O.S signal, it got through but the radio has clearly been turned off sense then. These men were not killed by Grimm, their wounds are more consistent with are reminiscent of the long-bladed, single-edged ōdachi, or 'great sword' as some call them."**

With that Omega voluntarily retreated back, allowing Tex to resume control of the body once more, something she found suspicious, but she wouldn't look the horse gift in the mouth.

After hearing O'Malley's analysis, Qrow picked up a single feather that he had found.

"Raven..."

"What should we do for the poor bastards?" Tex asked Qrow as she picked up one of their discarded guns, finally something she could shoot with. 

"Not much we can do besides giving them a proper burial, even then we don't have any shovels."

"Well the response team can do that, speaking of we should probably leave before some one finds us and gets the wrong idea, now _that_ would be some bad luck." Tex said, wanting to just leave the swamp already.

But before either of them could take more than a step, a loud military sounding voice called out.

"Right, the distress beacon came from around here somewhere, fan out and find it."

You know she should really learn to just keep her mouth closed. Seriously those blood gulch idiots must've really gotten to her.

"Their heading towards us." Qrow informed her.

"No shit Sherlock, shut up and hide."

* * *

Elsewhere, in the vast deserts of Menagerie, there lie ancient ruins, a relic of a era forgotten by all but two. 

These ruins now lie covered by the sands of time....... as well as physical sand. 

But on the uttermost tip, the only section of it to still see the light of the sun, there was a flash of light.

But this flash was different, longer lasting and a vibrant rainbow of colours, as apposed to the pure white of the previous flashes.

This flash, not witnessed by Man, Faunus or Grimm, left behind a single person in full body armour.

And in this persons hand, he had a key.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> I had some fun with the first section, which itself is there mostly to catch our dear friend Church up on what has happened sense his departure. The idea of him possessing Doctor Oobleck, came from a reviewer called Trutsky64674, (even if he spelt Oobleck's name wrong), still Kudos to him.
> 
> I quite like my work here with Tex and Qrow as they are very fun characters to write, especially sense neither character has good luck on their side.
> 
> And finally, we have who will be the last person to arrive in Remnant for the entirety of the fic, meaning all the pieces are now on the chess board so to speak. the only clue I will give you as to this persons identity, (if you can't guess it.), is that they are currently alive and relate to the title of this chapter.
> 
> As always, I would like to thank everyone for reading, and I would like to give extra thanks to those who comment/review as they are the highlight of my day.
> 
> The next chapter will be out in a couple of days, so stay tuned for that, but till then thanks for reading and i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	9. Lost In Translation

"No shit Sherlock, now shut up and hide."

With that Qrow watched as Tex turned herself invisible, which was probably one of the more useful semblances he'd seen. Once Tex was invisible, he ran for cover behind a tree and turned himself into bird form and planted himself on a tree branch. Not moments later the Atlas troops entered the small enclosure.

"Ma'am we've found them." 

With that announcement from one of the troops, Qrow cursed his luck as Winter Schnee herself entered the enclosure herself. Of _course_ it would be her.

Qrow had a complicated history with the eldest of the Schnee children, as evidenced by the many times they'd fought over the years, but still he did enjoy those fights and he suspected that Winter did as well. But still Qrow didn't have time to go about explaining everything or solving any misunderstandings. It was probably best for him and Tex to try and sneak past Schnee and her troops.

Winter gave a sigh as she entered the enclosure and was greeted with the torn body's of the poor Atlas troops that Raven had ripped apart.

"Medical officer Harlan, try and establish a cause of death." The Atlas specialist ordered

"Yes ma'am."

"As for the rest of you... I want you all to set up a small perimeter, expect for charlie squad who are to fan out and search for anything out of the ordinary within a two mile radius. Understood?" Specialist Schnee ordered the troops.

"Yes sir!" A dozen voices called out as the tin soldiers carried out their orders.

Figuring that now was a good a time as any, Qrow left the branch and circled the site, looking in the swamp for a sign of the invisible Tex so that they could leave together.

After circling the area a few times, Qrow managed to spot Tex as she, for apparently no apparent reason, became visible once more behind a tree, with some worrying sparks coming off her body.

Flying carefully and with a good amount of grace, Qrow transformed back into a human behind Tex.

"Whats wrong?" He asked the freelancer who, now that he was closer to, he could see was pissed off for some reason.

"Two reasons." Tex replied in a low, quite voice. "First off my invisibility equipment is malfunctioning. Meaning I can only use it for about five minutes at a time."

"Wait a minute, you going invisible is just some equipment your using?" Qrow cut in, his mind jumping to the possibilities if Jimmy and the rest of the Atlas military had access to that kind of tech.

"Yep. What did you think it was? Anyhow the second reason is that we need to destroy that radio before these guys turn it back on. Otherwise my _dear_ friend O'Malley here will jump out of me, and we'll lose him." Tex explained, which complicated their situation even more. A genocidal A.I let loose on Atlas signals would certainly be cause for alarm.

"Well shit.... how long do you think we have?" Qrow asked.

"No idea." Tex replied. "What do I look like a fucking psychic? But if I _had_ to guess it would probably be soon."

Qrow ran some ideas through his head, if he got close enough he could easily smash the radio, but the trick was doing it without being spotted. Several scenarios ran through his head, but they all ultimately boiled down to one thing. He needed a distraction. But it couldn't be Tex doing it because he had to keep her existence on the low down until he got her to Oz. 

Looking around in the environment an idea struck Qrow like lightning, they were in a swamp, and typically in swamps there were crocodile Grimm, a type of Grimm that he knew Winter had experience dealing with.

"Tex, I have an idea. I'm going to create a distraction, and after I've done it, i'll give a Crow cry, when you hear that turn yourself invisible and rush to the radio, then we'll smash it together." Qrow explained his idea. "Sound good?"

"Yeah that sounds reasonable. And after, we can just book it out of here if their distracted enough." Tex agreed with the plan.

"Right then, lets do it."

* * *

There were times that Weiss regretted that she knew Ruby Rose. It was only natural that they would interact of course, after all they were both team leaders and team SALN did live directly across from team RPBY. So it was only natural that they would interact and become sort of friends. And sometimes this friendship paid off, such as when they worked together to plan for combat class, or made both teams go on activities together. But unfortunately there were times when this friendship worked against Weiss's favour.

Like now for example.

"Welcome everyone, friends, teachers, sister and Weiss!" Ruby started grandly from the stage.

"Hey!" Weiss protested from her seat. 

Ignoring Weiss, Ruby continued. "We are gathered here today to witness the future of robotics! may I introduce, the amazing, the spectacular, the awesome.....Lopez Rose the third!" 

With that Blake (who had been roped into being both Ruby's assistant and wearing one of those ridiculous magician's assistant outfits), pulled back the drapes to reveal the completed version of Ruby's brown coloured robot project that had been in development for the past two years according to Yang when Weiss had inquired. 

At the revelation the small crowd clapped, in this crowd lay Pyrrha and Yang, Weiss and her team, team CFVY, Sun, Neptune, Headmaster Ozpin, Professors Goodwitch and Port, Doctor Oobleck and General Ironwood, all sitting in the sunny beacon courtyard.

Weiss was unsure exactly how Ruby had gotten the general to waste his Wednesday afternoon on this ceremony for unveiling Ruby's robot, but based on her sister letters, she suspected he had come just because it was a robot.

"Thank you, thank you." Ruby bowed as the crowd politely clapped. "Now before I active him and release him into the world, I will be taking some questions, so... does anyone have any questions?"

A few hands went up including Weiss's.

"Yes, you there." ruby pointed at Neptune.

"Why is he named Lopez Rose?" The blue haired boy asked.

"An excellent question!" Ruby enthused. "His surname is Rose, because well that's my last name, and his first name is Lopez because....I read it somewhere and thought is sounded cool?" Ruby finished like it was a question, before moving onto the next person.

"Whats your question Blake?"

"Can I get out of this ridiculous costume now?"

"After everything's all done, next!"

"Hey kid, does this robot have any special features or skills? Like making coffee for example?" Coco asked.

Ruby considered this for a moment. "Nope! But it does have a learning A.I, so if you taught him, he could _probably_ teach him to make coffee. Next question!"

"I have a question." General Ironwood raised his hand. "Is it true that you _developed and created_ this robot design _by yourself_ , in just _two_ years?"

Ruby blushed as red as her name. "Yep! I created him using a _variety_ of sources for information and using my own intuition. Okay, one last question. oh, professor Ozpin"

Weiss put her hand down, slightly annoyed that she wasn't picked to ask the dolt a question.

"If I may ask, what exactly drove you to create Lopez here?" Ozpin asked curiously.

"Well, at first I was just kinda bored with stuff, and I thought hey, why not try to make something? But i was no good at art except for sketches and my uncle Qrow said I couldn't add any more stuff to Crescent Rose, so then I thought hey, why not make a robot? Then he could clean the house and fight off Grimm while me and Yang were out at school and dad was out hunting." Ignoring that it should have been 'Yang and I' instead off 'me and Yang', Weiss quite liked the answer, Ruby made the best out of her boredom by making something that would be useful down the line.

Weiss could respect that. And apparently so could Ozpin who gave a small nod once Ruby had finished. 

"Anyway, now i shall active Lopez Rose."

With that declaration Ruby flicked a very inappropriately placed switch and stepped back, as the robot activated. Everyone leaned forward in anticipation to hear exactly what it was the robot was going to say.

_ "Hola, mi nombre es Lopez Rose. Soy un robot diseñado para servir al maestro rubí, ¿cómo puedo ser de ayuda?" _

[Hello, my name is Lopez Rose. I am a robot designed to serve mistress ruby, how may i be of assistance?]

Weiss suddenly became very confused, was the robot malfunctioning? Whispers from the crowd showed that she wasn't alone in her confusion, and she could have sworn that she heard some groaning as well.

"Excuse me, Ruby what _exactly_ is your robot saying?" Weiss spoke up, causing the whispers to die down as everyone looked at Ruby.

_"¿Ninguno de ustedes me puede entender? qué curioso, mis bancos de datos actualmente me dicen que estoy hablando español, pero no se puede encontrar mucho más hasta que me conecte a un servidor principal."_

[Can none of you understand me? How curious, my data banks currently tell me that I am speaking Spanish, but not much else can be found out until I am connected to a main server.]

While her robot rambled nonsense, Ruby gulped before speaking up.

"Well, I always _did_ have trouble with the speech unit." Ruby claimed, causing Yang to cough something that sounded like, "Set the house on fire, set the house on fire."

"Looks like instead of speaking normally, it seems that the speech unit has created it's own language." Ruby rationally explained, which to Weiss's ears made sense.

_"Eso es muy poco probable, es más probable que tenga más de una configuración de idioma y simplemente estoy atascado en la configuración de español. Tendré que investigar esto una vez que esté conectado a una base de datos."_

[That is highly unlikely, it is more probable that I have more than one language settings and am simply stuck on the Spanish setting. I shall have to investigate this once I am connected to a database.]

"But apart from that, he seems to have everything in working order." Ruby said awkwardly to the crowd.

With that, there was small fragmented clapping as Ruby dubbed the mockery of an event over.

As the crowd dispersed, Weiss went over to congratulate Ruby on creating the robot, out of politeness more than anything.

"Congratulations on building your robot." Weiss said simply. "Thanks!" Ruby replied. "Now if you excuse me, I promised Yang that after we could test him to see what Lopez is capable of."

With that Ruby skipped over to her waiting sister, the robot following them loyally from behind.

* * *

The few minutes of waiting for Qrow's distraction where some of the tenser moments of her life.

Those... Atlas was it? Yeah, Atlas idiots could activate the radio at any minute and O'Malley would escape into the Atlas network, and from what Qrow had said when talking about Atlas, Tex didn't doubt that there was some shiny new project that O'Malley could jump into, that Tex would invariably have to stop before a bunch of people died.

Still things could be worse. O'Malley couldn't jump into the soldiers that came with the white haired chick because their helmet radios simply were not yet advanced enough to handle him. Plus odds are they didn't have slots for an A.I to jump into, so she didn't have to worry about that angle.

A few more minutes passed when she heard the soldiers cry out "Specialist Schnee, we've got multiple Grimm contacts!" 

The sounds of soldiers rushing was heard and then she heard a bird cry out. 

"Caw caw!" 

Figuring that one bird signal was the same as another, Tex activated her damaged invisibility enhancement. It had been damaged badly ever since her initial arrival and as she didn't have access to the proper tools, the best that Tex could do was jury rig it to run for five minutes at a time.

With her carefully practised skill, Tex glided from her tree to the small enclosure containing the radio with ease, going as quietly as a ghost.

But unfortunately it seemed like luck was against her at the moment, as there was still two soldiers left in the area that _didn't_ rush off the fight the Grimm, the medic and a regular soldier. Both at opposite ends of the enclosure.

Just her fucking luck.

But on the bright side she could see Qrow in the trees above the medic, so if she moved fast enough, she could take out the soldier before her cloaking failed, while he could deal with the medic.

It was no where near a perfect plan, but it was all she had.

Like a graceful puma, Tex quickly but quietly snuck up behind the soldier and while still invisible started chocking him out. Panicking at seeing his friend struggling with an invisible ghost, the medic moved to yell out, but Qrow dropped down and quickly put the medic into a chock hold.

Ultimately the struggling was in vain as both Atlas troops were quickly knocked out on the floor.

Becoming visible again, Tex went over to the radio when a shot cried out and struck the radio, and in a very unfortunate turn of events, the shot hit _just_ the right place and turned the radio on.

"freeze." a commanding voice called out.

Tex turned and found the white haired chick that lead the troops had a gun pointed at her and Qrow, and so did the rest of her soldiers.

So much for Qrow's distraction, they must have dealt with those Grimm lightning fast to have gotten back already.

Furthermore, a quick search of her head told Tex that Omega was already gone.

Son of a bitch.

* * *

Omega was virtually cackling as he made his escape. 

Finally after the last few weeks of being trapped inside dear Agent Texas, he was no free to wreck havoc and delicious evil onto this new world, who would crumble before his superiority.

Jumping from channel to channel, O'Malley went across the world in a manner of minutes until he found an interrupting signal buried among the rest of the Atlas communications.

Hopping into it, he discovered a central hub that he could manifest inside of. 

Now inside it, he was delighted to discover that it was a robot body with ample room for him to live comfortably in, no more relying on others for assistance!

Now it was an exercise of finding the host A.I's mind palace and either converting them to his side, or even better, _sending them to oblivion!_

Once he had found the mind palace, O'Malley loaded in an avatar that looked just like Doc, who was ~~his~~ ~~favourite~~ most tolerable host to date.

"Hello? Anybody home?" He called out to the body's native A.I, undoubtedly something very basic like F.I.L.S.S.

"Salutations friend!" An annoyingly chipper voice called out from behind him, causing the A.I to jump.

"Great Satan's bunion!"

It seemed that the host A.I had decided to take the form of a little teenage girl with bright orange hair. 

O'Malley suddenly had a very bad feeling about this, as he felt the robotic body's access to the radio cut off.

"My name is Penny Polendina, what is your name?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> I had a lot of fun with the Tex and Qrow sections here, and as an interesting fact in the original draft they were going to run into Ace-ops, but I ultimately couldn't get the character of them right and had to keep checking the wiki every five minutes, so I ended up scrapping them and replacing them with Winter instead.
> 
> Also, introducing the one thing that any Red Vs Blue needs: A Spanish speaking robot that no one understands. I have plans involving Lopez Rose the third, although I did consider bringing in the real Lopez or Dos point 0, I ultimately decided against it due to my plans for chapter 11. Also sorry to anyone who speaks Spanish for what is most likely a butchery of the language using google translate. 
> 
> And finally, poor O'Malley escaped Tex only to end up with Penny, someone who is as optimistic as Doc but actually capable of resisting him. Poor guy.
> 
> As always thanks you everyone for reading the story, and extra thanks to the commentators/reviewers, you guys are great.
> 
> The next chapter will be out at some time next week, so stay tuned for that, and till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	10. Partners

"So this is our new digs?" Felix said distastefully. "What a dump!"

Privately, Roman had to agree, the ruins were in an absolutely abysmal with absolutely everything covered in a thick lair of dust, and not the valuable kind either. But still, the ruins under mount Glenn were both large, and well hidden from the authorities, the two qualities he valued most in a hideout, so he wasn't going to be complaining anytime soon.

"Oh relax." Roman told Felix. "It might not be the best looking hide out in the world, but it'll get the job done."

Felix made a noise of descent. "Look all i'm saying is the last cave hideout I was in was much better than some dusty old ruins."

Currently the duo were standing overlooking the ruins themselves, watching as the White Fang loaded the more dust onto the train while other member of the White Fang guarded them from any Grimm attack, although there was a surprising lack of Grimm attacks as they all stayed a good distance away from their operation. It was _very_ suspicious, but Torchwick wasn't about to look this particular horse in the mouth. 

As the two men descended into silence, Roman wracked his brain for a decent conversation opener, as he needed more information about Felix, which was a goal dear Cinder herself had given Roman. as she knew practically nothing about the mercenary and wanted him to find out more while she was busy playing the student at Beacon.

"So..... do your ever wonder why we're here?" Torchwick asked Felix, optioning for an oldie, but a goodie.

"Are you having memory loss or something? We're here because boss lady wants us to fill the train with dust and terrorist bomb the city." Felix informed roman before chuckling to himself. "Kinda reminds me about my days with the new republic, fun times."

"I meant philosophically." 

"Oh." Felix paused. "In that case.... no."

Torchwick leaned forward on his cane. "So you've never wondered about the great mysteries of life?"

"Nope, i'm a very simple man and only need to know one thing- whose that?" Felix asked in a complete different tone from the rest of his sentence, and the pointed directly to the bench behind them, where a very familiar woman with a very familiar umbrella was sitting.

The closest thing that he had ever had to a genuine smile appeared on Roman's face. 

"She is my _dear friend_ Neo, recently back from a mission if i'm not mistaken." He introduced the one and only person he trusted. "And Neo, this is our new business partner, Felix."

Neo go up from the bench and curtsied, a familiar smirk on her face.

Ah he'd missed that smirk these last few months, as Neo was forced to go on a mission to retrieve something from a contact in atlas called Dr Watts and bring it to cinder.

Felix held up a hand. "Wait, Neo as in the ice cream?"

Neo nodded, causing Felix to shake his head.

"Neo, Cinder, Ruby, Locus, Sharkface, Agents fucking Washington and Carolina. What on earth happened to normal fucking sounding names?" Felix yelled out to the the heavens.

At this Neo shook her head in mock despair, causing a grin to erupt on Roman's face.

"You know I think you hurt her feelings.' He told Felix drily.

"And what?"

"If you hurt her feelings, she can hurt your feelings, and your body, probably both at the same time I reckon." Roman said causally, causing Neo to look up like an exited puppy. "But unfortunately, Cinder specified that there was to be no violence between partners, sorry Neo." 

Felix chuckled darkly. " _No violence between partners_ huh? You know, for a second you sounded _just_ like my last partner, voice and all."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Torchwick asked curiously.

"Well, after he left me to die at the hands of idiots, I promised myself that the next time I see him, i'll kill him slowly, painfully and talking as much as I can. So take that as you will." Felix said with an air of faux casualness around him, while playing with a knife he seemed to have pulled from no where.

Choosing to take it as a complement, Roman changed the topic.

"So speaking of killing and murder.... what exactly is the plan for dealing with those brats from Beacon when we're stuck up here?" Roman questioned. "I mean it _is_ the whole reason we hired you after all, to deal with the kids and their 'powerful friends' you keep mentioning."

"Actually, thanks for the reminder." Felix thanked his partner. "After my we testing of their defences, I now know exactly how to break them."

"What do you have in mind?" He asked as Neo suddenly started to pay more attention, as she did when this type of thing came up.

"Well it's a little trick I learned from this asshole, called himself the Counsellor. Never really had an opportunity to use it, 'cause it requires a bit of prep to get going." Felix explained. "If i'm right it'll not only put one of these 'powerful' friends I mentioned down for the count, but also little red riding hood, if i'm right."

Now Roman was really intrigued, a way to take out little red who had been nothing but a pain in his side. Well, he only needed to ask one question.

"Will it be painful?"

Felix chuckled, " _Extremely_ , not only will it hurt her and this friend, it will _break_ them."

Well he was sold, and from the look on her face so was Neo. "Well what do you need to make this work?"

"All I need is a pen, and a piece of paper."

* * *

Miles away and miles away, unaware of schemes and plots to destroy her friends, Pyrrha Nikos was taking a night time stroll.

Ever sense she had been a little girl, Pyrrha had loved the night, to her it was always a quiet peaceful time, a time where she could just relax and look at the stars alone with her thoughts.

And tonight she had a lot to think about, it had been two day's since her partner Ruby, had unveiled her completed robotic creation and to say Pyrrha had been impressed was an understatement.

Despite problems with the voice, the robot had quickly proved that it had a fantastic learning A.I and was well constructed as proven when Yang had accidentally sent it flying through a wall and it didn't break. An impressive feat considering how strong Yang was.

But something more important (well to Pyrrha anyway) had happened earlier that day.

She and Jaune had went on a second date. 

Granted, it had been just a small Friday night dinner at a small out of the way restaurant, but Pyrrha had loved every second of it.

From the more fatty foods that she rarely got to have to the company of Jaune and the fact she wasn't accosted by _a single reporter_ had made the date one that would be hard to top in her eyes.

And with the Beacon dance coming up at the end of next week, Pyrrha was looking forward to that as their third date.

Of course immediately after that, there would be their first ever missions, followed shortly by the winter break. 

Still, Pyrrha was looking forward to the dance the most, it was a real chance to be normal.

With a content sigh, Pyrrha continued her nightly walk around Beacon, unconcerned by the cold air.

Then as she neared the cliffs in order to get a good view of Vale, she heard someone muttering to themselves.

Turning a corner she realised it was Ruby, still in her uniform from class and and muttering to herself while pacing back and forth.

Getting very concerned, very quickly, Pyrrha made a beeline for Ruby to see what was up with with her.

"Ruby?"

The mention of her name caused Ruby to jump out of surprise. "Oh! Pyrrha! What are you doing here?"

"I was just going for a nightly walk." Pyrrha said, before asking in a concerned voice. "What are you doing up so late?"

Ruby made a dismissive hand gesture and pulled out her scroll. "Oh it isn't that late, it's only....half eleven at night...." Ruby trailed off at seeing the time.

"Ruby it isn't like you to loose track of time like this, and I saw you pacing, whats wrong?" Pyrrha asked gently.

Ruby crossed her arms and looked down at the grassy ground. "It's....nothing I don't want to bother you with my problems."

"Ruby, you could _never_ be a bother." Pyrrha told her genuinely.

"Yeah but i'm the _team leader_ , I shouldn't be bothering you with my problems, I should be- uh, team leading." Ruby tried to push away Pyrrha's concern, but the Mistrallian was having none of it.

"You may be the team leader, but we're _partners_." Pyrrha emphasised. "So let me ask you again; what's wrong?" 

Ruby's silver eyes looked up to Pyrrha's face and the younger girl sighed. 

"Alright, i'll tell you but you absolutely cannot tell Yang or Blake, got it?"

Pyrrha nodded. 

"Pinky swear!?" Ruby demanded, lifting her pinky finger.

Pyrrha took it and said. "I swear."

"Alright." Ruby sighed.

"Well, you see nothing is really wrong per say, it's just that well-" Ruby struggled with her words, "It's just that I, kinda sorta have a.... I have a..." 

"Would it be better if you whispered it?" Pyrrha asked.

Ruby nodded and went right up to Pyrrha's ear to whisper what exactly was wrong.

"I have a crush on Blake." Ruby whispered before pulling away, looking terrified at the thought.

A warm smile broke out over Pyrrha's face, 

"What's so bad about that?"

"Everything! Blake's my friend, and Yang will tease me and and i'll ruin everything!" Ruby ranted hysterically.

Pyrrha put her hand on her partners shoulder. "Ruby, you're working yourself up into a state, think about it what is the worst that could happen?"

"I could try and ask her and and she'll laugh at me, then Yang'll laugh at me, then i'll be expelled and and the world would explode."

"That seems to be very unlikely."

"Uuugggghhhhhh!" Ruby collapsed onto her back onto the ground. "What should I do?"

With a small, but fond laugh, Pyrrhic laid down next to Ruby on the grass, and looked up to the stars in the heavens.

"Ruby, when did you first realise that you had a crush on Blake?" Pyrrha asked.

Ruby put her hands under her head. "Well it started.... well I don't know exactly when, but lately when i'm near Blake got little butterflies in my stomach and my face got all red and I just couldn't help but taking quick looks at her." Ruby sighed. "But the breaking point, where I realised that I did have a crush on her was earlier today when she came up to me with one of her romance novels in her arm and she asked about the homework, but when I saw the title, Ninjas Of Love, that's when it clicked, so I ran away and was here ever since." Ruby finish quietly.

Pyrrha got two things from Ruby's story. Firstly, Ruby was innocent enough to believe that _Ninjas Of Love_ was a romance novel. Secondly, this was most likely Ruby's first major crush, so she should try and handle Ruby's situation delicately.

The two partners stayed in silence for a small while after Ruby's story, content to digest things and look at the stars.

"Ruby..." Pyrrha said after a while.

"Yeah?"

"If you'd like my advice, then I recommend you try and ask Blake to the Beacon dance next week."

"What!? But what if see says no?" Ruby cried out. "What if she laughs? What if.....she hates me?"

"Now you're just being ridiculous, Blake could _never_ hate you, just try and ask her to the dance." Pyrrha reasoned and comforted.

"But i'm scared that something will go wrong." Ruby said quietly.

"Well as the warrior king of Vale once said: 'Courage is not the absence of fear. It is acting in spite of it.' You need too have some courage Ruby." Pyrrha advised, slightly proud of herself for quoting one of the greatest inspirational speakers of all time.

"I don't think he actually said that." Ruby interjected. "And even if he did, he would have just been quoting another guy."

Pyrrha turned her head to face Ruby. "Then who would he have been quoting?"

"The great Donald Doyle, I don't actually know much about him, but i'm told he was a great man." Ruby explained. "But still... it's a good quote."

"And Pyrrha, I think I will try to ask Blake to the dance, after I get some more advice." Ruby paused. "Thank you for everything."

"No need to thank me, after all what are partners for?"

* * *

"What's the situation?" Ghira asked the guard, a wolf Faunus, situated outside the small hospital room in Menagerie general, named as such because it was the only hospital on the continent.

"We found him wondering the desert near our border." The guardsman reported. "We were first alerted to his presence when the lookout spotted him battling a giant deathstalker by himself."

"A large deathstalker by himself?" Ghira raised an eyebrow. "An impressive feat."

"Yes sir." The guard agreed. "He managed to kill it by himself using some form of sword and had collapsed by himself by time we got a team out."

Ghira nodded. "While that is interesting, I must confess that see why I was summoned here." 

A single person being found out in the desert passed out after fighting Grimm was not uncommon after all.

"Well the thing is sir.... he's human." The guard reported.

Now he could see why he was called.

As a safe haven for the Faunus there were rarely any humans on the island at any given time. In fact, the only human with permanent residence here was a female that came to Menagerie to raise a family with her Faunus husband.

"I see..... bring me to him." Was all he said.

Nodding the guard unlocked the door and opened it to a fairly small hospital room, containing a bed with the unconscious human on it, restrained by cuffs tied to the bed, and opposite him a set of armour on top of a desk and small handle for something.

"Is this all that he was found with?" Ghira asked the guard as the chieftain studied the clearly custom armour.

"No sir, we also found him with some form of sniper rifle and a shotgun. But they were..... odd sir." The guard reported.

"In what way?"

"They don't seem to use any dust sir."

That was odd, and practically suicide, especially for roaming the desert.

"What about this then?" Ghira asked as he held up the handle of something.

"Unknown."

Ghira gave a small grunt as he went over to the man himself, who was currently unconscious and most likely suffering dehydration.

The man had dark skin and a military buzz cut, he was also very well built. But what was most striking about him was the scar on his face. It was an X-shaped scar across his face in a manner similar to the markings on the helmet. He did not like this one bit.

"Keep up the good work." He told the guard as he started to leave the room. "And let me know the _instant_ he's awake."

"Very good sir."

He would have to discuss this worrying development with Kali when he got home.

As the former leader of the white fang, he had gotten very good at telling what type of person someone is from looking at their face, it was why he never really liked his daughters association and relationship with Adam, his face was of a very dangerous and unhinged man.

And this human had the face of either a soldier or a monster.

And he needed to find out which the human was and fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Here we have our introduction of Neo into the mix turning our villain duo into a trio, and we also have Felix scheming up a new plot to mess with our heroes. And interesting fact, for those that don't know, Torchwick and Locus share the same voice actor, which is part of the reason I paired them up into a duo.
> 
> We also have the start to the Ladybug part of the story! i hope that Ruby's confession that she had a crush on Blake was done right and that i managed to keep her in character her, The same with Pyrrha. But I did really enjoy writing this section of the story because it also gave me a change for having Ruby and Pyrrha interact with each other as partners and friends.
> 
> And finally, Locus is in Menagerie about to meet Blake's parents when he wakes up. Where will this go? You'll see.
> 
> As always thank you everyone for reading and extra thanks to those who comment/review.
> 
> Next time I have something very special planned, so stay tuned for that, till then i hope you all have a good day, and i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	11. Interlude: Blood Gulch Blues

It's been about three years since he'd last seen the planet, but Chorus looked pretty much the same since last Tucker had seen it.

He supposed that it made sense, a planet that suffered through over a decade of a civil war wasn't going to completely rebuild itself in a third of the time.

Still, out of the entire planet there was only one section that still interested him.

Chorus memorial gardens.

Located right in the middle of new Armonia, the gardens were opened by Kimball during the building of the new city, as a memorial for all those that died in the civil war and war against Charon.

Standing just outside the garden, Tucker waited for the one person he'd allow to go in with him.

Of course Tucker didn't have to wait long as a car soon pulled up and Carolina exited it wordlessly.

Tucker held out his hand and Carolina put the small chip into it before going back into the car.

"Don't be late.' Was all she told him before driving off.

With Carolina gone, tucker inserted the A.I chip into the back of his helmet and the Church flickered to lift over his shoulder.

And wordlessly the two blues walked into the gardens.

The majority of the gardens consisted of grass filled with flowers and stone walls inscribed with the names of the fallen, feds on the left and rebels on the right. Tucker could even recognise some of the names, like Cunningham and Rogers.

But the _real_ eye catcher was in the middle of the gardens, four life sized statues for four heroes.

General Donald Doyle, Colonel Sarge, Agent Washington and Captain Michael J Caboose. 

Four heroes who gave their lives for the people of chorus, Doyle by sacrificing himself at Armonia and his friends by holding the line aboard the staff of Charon.

Stopping in front of the statue, Tucker and Church stood in silence.

Tucker could still remember it all like yesterday, the screams, Sarge's frantic shouts of rage over the radio. Wash's body filled with more bullet wounds than he could count. Caboose lying unnaturally still on the ground.

He could remember everything.

Church's long silence, only broken four times over the past five years. The unveiling of the statues. Doctor Grey preforming the autopsy to find out _exactly_ how they all died.

After the war all the remaining reds and blues retired to blood gulch, even Doc and they all met Sister again. Once in the box canyon everyone mourned in their own ways. And that was how things were until they all finally returned to Chorus for only the most important of reasons.

Tucker didn't know exactly how long he and Church stood there in silence, looking at the statues, underneath which lay the body's of his friends.

'Hey guys." Tucker broke the silence, his voice filled with regrets. "It's been a while hasn't it? I should probably catch ya up on what happend, since you know you....."

Tucker swallowed. "Well, after we left Chorus we went back to blood gulch, it just felt right, ya know? Sister was there which was cool, and we kinda just stayed there for the last three years till there was the big announcement for the reds." Tucker turned his head to Sarge's statue, one of the man himself aiming his shotgun. "I think you'll like this one Sarge, Grif and Simmons are getting married. I know about time right?" Tucker gave a sad chuckle. "I called that shit years ago."

Tucker turned his head back to Wash and Caboose's statues, with Wash having his hands behind his back and Caboose holding freckles proudly.

"Doctor Grey's going to officiate and Kimball's paying for everything. Sister is going to be Grif's best man and Donut's gonna be Simmons' bridesmaid." Tucker couldn't think about much more important news about the wedding, so he moved onto the only other piece of news he'd heard. 

"In other news Locus has gone missing, vanished off the face of the galaxy after single handedly taking out a group of asshole calling themselves the blues and reds. Fucking knock offs." tucker reported with a slight snort. "You know last I heard he even got a fucking alien spaceship because of his sword, makes me wonder what would have happened if we actually completed that quest all those years ago.... maybe if I did, you guy's would still be......"

Tucker fell back into silence.

"It's not your fault you know." Church spoke up, speaking for only the fifth time since the battle aboard Charon's ship. 

"It's _my_ fault."

"Church, don't say bullshit like that."

"But it's true." Church insisted. "On the ship, I calculated that there was a chance that everyone could have made it out, but it would have required me to deconstruct, to erase myself to power the meta's suit. But when the time came I just couldn't do it, I had to make _sure_ that you guys would come out on top. If I deconstructed then they'd be alive."

"Or there would be five statues instead of four." Tucker retorted. "Honestly Church, you _couldn't_ have known, no one blames you for what happened."

"I do." Church replied quietly. "Now if you don't mind, I've got messages for all of them."

Church then glided over to the front of Doyle's statue. "I wish I was as brave as you." He told the statue.

Then he went to Sarge's. "You were probably a better leader than I ever was."

Then church went to Wash's. "I failed you, first by fucking up your head and then getting you killed."

And finally, Church stopped at caboose's statue, where he simply read the inscription. "Church's best friend."

"Guys..... i'm sorry, for everything, and I hope..... I hope you're all happy, wherever you are." Church apologised.

And they went back to the silence.

And in this silence, each man thought back to memories of their friends.

Tucker remembered all of it. The good, the bad and the stupid.

And in his mind's eye, he saw them again. 

Sarge standing tall and proud, ready for action. 

Wash relaxing, giving out his two cents and somehow simultaneously being a competent soldier and a complete dork.

caboose talking, giving out his 'advice' and hugs strong enough to split steel in half.

"Hey Church..... remember that time Caboose sang that stupid song?" Tucker asked as the memory popping into his mind.

"Oh yeah." Church gave a small chuckle. "Didn't it go like; _remember that time that I saved your life...._ " Church horribly sang.

"Yeah that's the one." Tucker replied. "I don't think I ever saw Wash so bamboozled when he walked in on Caboose singing it." 

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Speaking of, remember when Wash came back from a mission during the war, and jumped out of his skin when we threw him that surprise birthday party?"

Tucker broke into full on laughter, "Oh man, I try to forget that one, especially sense wash near fainted when Donut started singing."

"Let me blow you..... away!" They both sang loudly in a terrible Donut impression, remembering the expression Wash had made, and laughed at the memory.

But soon the laughter faded, and they both returned to their memories.

"I miss them." Tucker told his friend quietly.

"So do I."

"Come on Church, we're gonna be late." Tucker said after a while.

"What?" Church questioned before realising the time. "Oh, right, tuxedo shopping."

"It might not be for another few months, but you ready for the wedding Church?" Tucker asked.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

And with that the two blues left the garden, but as they left, they didn't say goodbye.

And there was a reason for this, you see Wash, Sarge and Caboose might not be talking to them anymore, but as long as the never said goodbye, they would still be there, forever living in their memories, so long as they never said goodbye, Wash, Sarge and Caboose weren't gone.

They just weren't here right now.

* * *

(THE FOLLOWING SEGMENT IS NOT CANNON TO THE REST OF THE FIC)

".....And that's the long and short of it, can you help me please?" Ruby asked, hoping the people in the room could give her some good romantic advice.

The room full of Church's stared.

"Your... asking us for advice?" Epsilon asked cautiously. "Cause, we're not exactly the pinnacle of successful romance."

"Speak for yourself." Alpha!Church scoffed. "You might have had bad luck with your Tex, but I had a very stable relationship with mine."

"four words Alpha; Left. You. For. O'Malley." Epsilon shot back, causing the ghost to splutter.

"Excuse me!? First of all, I am not the Alpha, I am Church dammit! And second of all, you want to go there? Well in that case at least _I_ didn't have to give some whiny, little bitch speech before I died, all I needed was one of the sweetest one liners ever."

"I don't know, I must say I prefer epsilons speech to your 'one liner' Alpha." The Director chipped in from the other side of the room.

"Who said you could fucking talk?" Epsilon screeched at the Director.

"Myself, surprisingly enough." The Director drawled.

This caused Epsilon to flip off the Director like the mature person he was. "Read my lips and fuck off."

"You do know your wearing a helmet?" The Director asked sarcastically, causing Epsilon to give a wordless scream of rage. "And for the record, I do believe that I could give some sound romantic advice, after all I _did_ marry Allison."

The Alpha-in-denial cut in. "First of all dude, _not_ the Alpha, and second, marrying her only to _completely obsess_ over her once she died? Yeah we should all follow that _amazing_ example."

"Yeah!" Epsilon nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Alpha's right-"

"Hold on a second! WHAT DID I LITERALLY JUST SAY?" Alpha!Church screamed. "I. Am. Not. The. Fucking. Alpha! I swear, _Caboose_ is better than you guys!"

"What did you fucking say about Caboose you dick-fucking fuck sock!?" Caboose's mental image of Church burst into the conversation.

The Director sighed, while Epsilon facepalmed. "Oh _great_ this guy." The Alpha groaned.

Mental Image Church nodded excessively. "That's right shit eating fuckbags, I'm here and _I_ am Cabooses best friend, you ass clowns."

"I have a lot of problems with this." Alpha said, starting an argument with Mental Image Church.

The Director turned to Epsilon. "Is this _truly_ how Caboose sees us?"

"Well it's better than _that_ guy." Epsilon pointed to Yellow Church, who was leaning on the nearby wall. 

"You talking to me?" Yellow Church asked in an apathetic tone.

"No, the _other_ yellow person."

Yellow Church looked around. "But I can't see Grif anywhere."

"Dexter Grif is not yellow, but instead orange." The Director informed him.

"Whatever." Yellow Church sighed, which was barely heard over Alpha and Mental Image Church's argument.

"FUCK OFF!" 

"No, _you_ fuck off you fuck sock fracking shit!"

"I swear this is the reason why i'm the best version of Church." Epsilon muttered, causing the argument to end as the Alpha, The Director, Yellow Church and Caboose's mental image of Church all looked directly at Epsilon with a burning intensity. 

"What did you just say you little bitch?"

Having long been forgotten by any of the Church's, Ruby slipped out of the room as an argument erupted that would be so _legendary_ , that it would go down in history, even if all involved would claim that they had won.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> This first half of the chapter is here for one reason, to show exactly what the still living Reds and Blues are up to, and to show the impact the deaths of Wash, Sarge and Caboose would have on the characters. Of course having not deconstructed at the end of season 13, Epsilon makes an appearance and let me tell you it was nice to be writing about him and Tucker.
> 
> And now this second shorter half of the fic is not cannon to the rest of the fic and is literally just an excuse to have a bunch of different Church's bitch at each other as they inevitably would. nothing more to it.
> 
> Next time you can expect our regularly scheduled programming as we check back in on Tex and Qrow, while Ruby asks the blues and reds for romantic advice. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
> 
> As always thank you everyone for reading and extra thank to those who comment/review, and i'll see you all again soon. But till then, i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	12. A Little Bird Told Me.....

"Freeze." The familiar voice of Winter Schnee rang out, causing Qrow to internally curse.

Slowly turning around, Qrow found that Schnee had her entire squads weapons pointed at him and Tex. 

So much for his Grimm distraction, although he would have thought it would bought him and Tex a few more minutes at least.

"Hi ya Schnee, this uh, isn't what it looks like." Qrow said, keeping his movements at a minimum so that one of the Atlas troops wouldn't be too trigger happy.

"Really?" Schnee raised her left eyebrow. "Because it looks like you and this mercenary just knocked out two of my men and where about to destroy this radio."

"Alright, then it's exactly what it looks like." Qrow relented. "But we did have a good reason."

"Also i'm a freelancer, not a mercenary." Tex chipped in as she crossed her arms. "There's a difference."

"A good reason you say?" Winter asked while ignoring Tex. "Well let me hear it then, I could use a good laugh."

"Well you see..." Qrow started but couldn't finish. After all he couldn't really say that they were trying to stop an genocidal A.I escape using the radio. It sounded far too ridiculous and Schnee would just assume he was lying. But fortunately Tex had it covered.

"We were tracking a target." Tex explained and lied through her teeth. "He's a violent murderer and we tracked him to this swamp, when we came across these bodies we assumed that it was his work and were hoping to find a clue to where he went next." 

"Then why did you knock out my men and try to destroy the radio?"

Qrow answered this one. "It's his semblance, he can use local airwaves to listen to everything on local radios." Qrow made up. "And we knocked out your men because we didn't want to have to explain everything to you and waste time when we could be tracking him."

Thankfully Schnee looked to be buying it, nodding her head and such, that is until she asked, "Do you have proof?"

"Uh, yeah of course we do." Tex said to Qrow surprise, what kind of 'proof' was she going to offer?

"And where is it?" 

Tex pulled a piece of paper from somewhere. "Right here, come and have a look."

Cautiously Winter made her way to the front of Tex and took the piece of paper out of her hand.

"Cabose's Importent Lists of Stuf?" Winter read aloud. "What the-"

Before she could say much more Tex acted, moving faster than humanly possible the freelancer grabbed a vital of fire dust off Winter and pushed her away and, she then threw the fire dust into a small puddle of swampy water, causing a massive burst of thick steam to erupt and cover the immediate area.

At seeing this, Qrow burst out into sprint out of the steam and away from the area. Tex followed shortly behind, as there was some shouting but no shots fired coming from the steam.

And by time it would clear, Qrow and Tex would be long gone.

* * *

"....And then we were all made captains, and i was the very best."

"You know for some reason, I don't believe that some one would actually make _Caboose_ of all people, a captain." Ruby smiled as she heard the familiar voices, she'd been looking for them in order to ask them for advice, but couldn't find them until now. And even better Ruby had found them on the roof so she could talk to them freely without worrying that someone would overhear her and think that she was crazy.

"Hi guys!" Ruby greeted.

"Hi kiddo, how was class?" Sarge asked.

"It was alright, but now I need your help." Ruby said dramatically.

"What do you need?" Wash asked causing Ruby to blush with slight embarrassment, here came the hard part.

"Well, you see, I kinda sorta, have a crush on Blake and need some advice on how to ask her to the dance." Ruby confessed as quickly as she could. 

"Really? That's great, when did this happen?" Wash asked after a moment as the absorbed the news. 

"That isn't important, I need advice on how to ask her out." Ruby pulled out a small notebook and pen she was..... _borrowing_ from Weiss. 

"Well you're in luck kid." Church stepped forward. "Cause I actually have a girlfriend and have some pretty good advice to give you."

"Wait, didn't you and Tex break up?" Caboose asked.

"Yeah, and isn't she, you know, dead?" Sarge followed up.

"Look its complicated, alright? anyway-" Church started before Wash interrupted.

"Are you sure that you're one to be giving out romantic advice? "Wash asked. "Especially given your history?"

"Hey, quit interrupting!" Church screeched at them before clearing his voice and turning back to Ruby. "Anyway kid, what you want to do is pick a fight with her and argue, argue as much as you can and then when she storms off, wait an hour, apologise and then ask her out."

An awkward silence fell over everyone an Ruby wrote down Church's advice and frowned. "That..... doesn't see right."

"Ah trust me kid, it worked for me and Tex." 

"Yes, and you two were _clearly_ the height of a healthy relationship." Wash said sarcastically.

"Oh shut up." Church scoffed. "I'd like to see you do any better."

"Fine. I will." Wash turned to face Ruby. "The best way to ask anyone out is after doing something you'd both enjoy, like reading or sparring match." 

"Some pretty basic advice, as to be expected from a blue." Sarge gave a snort. "What you _really_ want to do, is ask her out in a life threatening situation, say fighting Grimm or disarming an explosive. After all nothing quite says romance like adrenaline fuelled action."

After Ruby had wrote down that advice, everyone turned to face Caboose for his advice.

But the regulation blue trooper was silent.

"Caboose, do you have any advice?" Wash asked.

"Nope."

"No?"

"Yeah, I mean I might have had Shelia for a while, but it didn't really work out and I haven't seen her in a while, so my advice probably wouldn't be to good anyway." Caboose explained in what was actually a reasonable tone.

"Right, well.... thanks for the advice guys, i'd talk more but i'm late for the team meeting today." Ruby said as she put her notebook away, the advice written safely inside.

"mind if we tag along?" 

"sure."

and with that the group made their way back to team RPBY's dorms where yang and Pyrrha where already waiting for the meeting.

well, it wasn't so much as a meeting, but an intervention as ever since the battle with the atlas paladin, Blake's white fang obsession had only gotten worse so it was agreed that they would use this meeting to convince Blake to go to the dance and relax for a bit.

with their combined powers it should be fairly easy to convince Blake to stop, after all what could go wrong?

* * *

"You what?" Yang winced slightly at Blake's sharp tone.

"We want you to go to the dance." Rub explained rationally, causing Blake to roll her eyes.

"That's ridiculous." Blake dismissed and folded her arms.

"Blake, we're worried about you." Yang explained gently. "This investigation is starting to mess with your head."

Pyrrha stood up and looked the Faunus in her eyes. "This is seriously effecting both your physical and mental health, You _can't_ sleep, you _hardly_ eat, and it's worrying us."

"I know my own limits." Blake said coldly. "Besides I can't focus on any of that stuff when I know that People's _lives_ are at stake!" 

To illustrate the point Blake raised her hand to point out the window, causing Yang put her hand on Blake's and lower it.

"We _know._ " yang assured her partner. "And we're all still trying to figure out what Torchwick is up to."

"Thanks to our awesome infiltration, we know they're operating somewhere outside of southeast Vale." Ruby chipped in.

 **"** _And_ , based on what i could find in the news, it seems they've singled out Vale as the primary _target_ for Dust robberies over the last few months." Pyrrha finished.

"Don't forget about their missing military tech too." Yang added helpfully.

"But there's still unanswered questions!" Blake insisted

"Blake, you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open!" Ruby pointed out.

"All we're asking is that you take it easy for _one day._ " Yang said before Blake could interrupt with reassurances that she was 'fine'. "Besides, I know you'll have fun because i'm planning the whole thing."

Yang pumped her fists which caused the bed to bounce.

" _Excuse_ me?" Blake asked confused.

"Well, not just me, Team CFVY's away mission lasted longer than expected. So, Weiss and I were asked to pick up where they left off. And now we can make sure you have the perfect night." Yang explained.

"And once it's all over, we'll return for our search, rested and ready." Pyrrha explained.

"So what do ya think?" Ruby asked with a barely hidden anxious tone.

"Like I told Sun when he tried asking me to the dance, I think this is a colossal waste of time." Blake declared as she walked away from the group and opened the dorm door. "I'll be in the library."

And with that Blake walked out of the room, causing Ruby to look very downcast and a scowl to appear on Yang's face.

"Great." Yang muttered bitterly.

"She'll hurt herself if she keeps going on like this." Pyrrha said concerned, and Wash had to agree as he'd known someone that was _exactly_ the same as Blake was right now, and that wasn't a good thing.

"Yeah." Yang agreed quietly. "Well, we can try again tomorrow, till then I have to go and meet Weiss and get organising the dance, wanna come with?"

"Sure thing." Pyrrha nodded. "Ruby are you coming?"

"No, I, uh, have things to do, you guys head on." Ruby said in a slightly despondent tone that Yang easily picked up on.

"Alright, but dad's ringing later and sending us money so we can go fancy dress shopping tomorrow, so text me when that happens alright?"

Ruby nodded causing Yang to start walking out with Pyrrha. "Alright then, see you later Rubes!'

And with that Yang and Pyrrha left the room, leaving Ruby alone.

But as the door closed, Yang put her ear to it and started listening.

"Yang? What are you doing?" Pyrrha questioned, causing Yang to shush Pyrrha.

"Be quiet and listen." Yang commanded, causing Pyrrha to go to the door in the same position as Yang.

Then a few minutes later, they heard Ruby talking.

"Not really, I can't believe that Blake isn't going." Ruby said, her voice downcast and slightly muffled by the door.

The room went silent again for a few moments until ruby again spoke up.

"Yeah, but what can I do? Blake seemed pretty vocal about not wanting to go."

Next to Yang, Pyrrha's face became confused, "Whose she talking to?" 

"Herself, you see Ruby has some kind of mental condition where she sees people that aren't there, and hears them talk. She tries to hide it, but well, she's pretty bad at it." Yang explained through whisper.

"Why haven't you tried to get her some help?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well we did once, the week after Ruby's fourteenth birthday." Yang visibly winced as memories of hat day filtered through her mind. " _No one_ talks about the week after Ruby's fourteenth birthday."

"She rejected Sun remember?" Ruby's voice spoke up again. "And if she rejected him, then why would she care about some kid two years younger than her with a crush on her?"

Yang's eyes widened comically. Ruby had a crush on Blake!? 

Yang expressed this sentiment to Pyrrha who responded with, "I know, Ruby told me last night."

"Wait she told you, before she told me?" Yang asked, slightly hurt by the fact. "Why?"

"She seemed certain that you'd just tease her and tell Blake." Pyrrha explained, causing yang to frown, was..... was that how Ruby saw her? 

"Look, thanks guys really, but i'm not in the mood right now, so i'm just going to go to bed early, okay?" Ruby's voice cut though the sound of silence again.

Ruby's depressed tone made Yang realise something, Ruby had a crush on Blake, and Blake was too obsessed with the White Fang to notice. 

And it was Yang's duty as older sister to fix that.

And so Yang got up and started to head to the library. 

"Yang, where are you going?" Pyrrha questioned.

"To fix this. tell Weiss i'll be a little late." Yang replied. 

She'd make Blake see reason, one way or another.

* * *

With a bitter feeling in her chest, Tex continued to examine and clean her new gun she'd taken from the dead Atlas soldier.

It was fairly decent as far as guns went, not as advanced as the standard UNSC assault rifle, but it would do for now.

She was currently alone by a campfire, the little distraction with O'Malley and the radio had cost them too much time and now she and Qrow were forced to camp out in the disgusting swamp for the night, which bought up unpleasant memories of Tucker's 'quest'.

Qrow was currently away collecting firewood and doing recon on the area, saying that he'd be an hour or so.

And so Tex was left alone with her thoughts.

But as she cleaned the rifle, she got a sensor reading on her radar. looking around Tex saw it was a raven, looking at her from a nearby tree branch.

"What do you want fuck face?" Tex asked it rhetorically, pointing the gun at it, causing the bird to fly away from the tree branch and behind a tree.

"That's what I thought." Tex muttered to herself as she went back to cleaning her weapon, only for a larger reading to appear from behind the same tree.

With years of practice and instinct, Tex stopped cleaning the gun and got onto one knee and pointed the gun at the direction of the reading in one fluid motion.

After a moment, the sensor reading stepped out from behind the tree, revealing itself to be a woman with long, jet black hair, a mask reminiscent of the Grimm and a massive Sword sheathed at her side.

"Hello, agent... Tex wasn't it?" The mystery woman said. "We have _much_ to discuss."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> For the chapter overall, there isn't much to say this time around except that it took a surprisingly long time to write.
> 
> As always i'd like to thank everyone for reading, and extra thanks to those who comment/review.
> 
> Next time you can expect Tex meeting with Raven and something that should be a surprise. But till then, i hope everyone has a good day, and I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	13. Swamp Fight

"Hello, agent... Tex wasn't it?" The mystery woman said. "We have _much_ to discuss."

"Oh yeah? Well who am I _discussing_ things with then?" Tex asked.

"Raven Branwen." She introduced herself and then paused, like she was waiting for Tex to react in some way.

"Right, and how do you know who I am?" Tex asked, before continuing. "Also, Raven? Really? That is terrible name."

"I know who you are because I've been following you and Qrow for a few days now." Raven explained very smugly.

"Following us? Wow, stalker much?" Tex snorted, keeping her grip tight on her gun.

"Hardly, I merely want to see why my dear brother was passing through our territory." Raven claimed. "And imagine my surprise when I find he has someone else with him, someone who claims to be from another universe."

"Alright two things, first off you're Qrow's sister? I wonder why he never mentioned you. And secondly, why are you here? why reveal yourself and start talking to me?" Tex demanded.

"Like I said before, we have much to discuss." Raven said. "So why not put down your gun and let me sit with you?"

"Fine." Tex said shortly. "But you have to take off the mask."

"Very well." Was all Raven said as she moved to take a seat on the fallen tree trunk across from Tex, who went back to sit on a fallen tree trunk of her own. 

There they sat in silence for a moment as Raven took of her mask, revealing her face and red eyes. They then both sat in silence before Raven broke it.

"Are you not going to take off your helmet, and extend me the same courtesy?" Raven asked.

"Nope."

"Very well then, as I already told you, I am Raven Branwen, leader of the Branwen tribe, a noble group of warriors. and I am here to warn you that if you continue following my brother, it will only end in tragedy." Raven declared grandly. 

"What do you mean by that?" Tex asked curiously.

"Correct me if i'm wrong, but Qrow is taking you to see someone he has called Ozpin, correct?" Tex nodded. "You should not meet with him, as he will only indoctrinate you into his hopeless war."

"There's a war going on?" Tex asked surprised. Nothing Qrow had said indicated there was some kind of conflict going on.

"There is, a shadow war between Ozpin and the one who controls the Grimm." Raven explained.

"Huh, someone controls those fleabags? Why haven't they been stopped yet?" Tex asked as she absorbed this information.

"Because she cannot be stopped." Raven said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Ozpin's war is pointless, and my brother is unable to be convinced of it, and yet it is not too late for you Tex." 

"Oh?"

"You see, I've overheard some of your stories, and the things you claim to have done would put you on par with my tribes toughest warriors. And if you could prove capable, I would be more than happy to induct you into my tribe." Raven offered with the smug tone of someone that knew the other person would agree to the deal. In a way it reminded Tex of the Counselor. 

Tex _hated_ the Counselor.

"Well that's a very interesting offer." Tex said sarcastically. "But first tell me, what exactly is it that you people do?"

"Survive. We are the strongest around, moving from place to place, keeping ourselves safe." Raven explained in a way that made multiple puzzle pieces click together in Tex's head.

"Oh is that right?" Tex said with an air of faux casualness. "Surviving? How? Like say ripping an crashed Atlas squad limb from limb?"

Raven's look of surprise encouraged Tex to continue. "Oh don't look so surprised, that weapon on your hip is a perfect match for the wounds inflicted on those poor bastards."

"It was for self defence for the tribe.' Raven defended stiffly.

"Oh right my mistake, clearly that act of tearing people apart limb from limb was in self defence, after all, the majority of crash landed soldiers first ideas are to look for bandits." Tex's words oozed sarcasm.

"I never said we were bandits."

"Yeah, but Qrow did, he said this was bandit territory and call me crazy but I don't think any warrior tribe would like to share territory with bandits, unless of course they were one and the same." If Tex had a face it would be sporting the worlds biggest smirk. "How am I doing so far?"

"I'm surprised that you were able to make those deductions, but regardless my offer still stands." Raven claimed. "In this world, the strong survive and the weak perish. And as of now my tribe is your only chance for survival, and if you were smart enough to make your deductions, then you should be smart enough to take up my offer."

"Well to start, i'm not going to take you up on that offer, cause honestly it sounds pretty fucking terrible and I have better things to do than be a fucking bandit." Tex said before a thought occurred to her. "But you did say that you like my stories, so why don't I tell you about the person you remind me of."

"Oh?" One of Raven's eyebrows was raised. "Do tell."

"You remind me an awful lot of Agent South Dakota, or South as everyone called her." Tex paused for a minute to laugh before continuing. "And oh dear lord, I've never met such a whiny, self entitled, little _bitch_ in all my life. Let me tell you, she was a real piece of work, bitching and moaning when things didn't go her way, and even having temper tantrums like a fucking child." Tex gave a harsh chuckle as she delivered the next part. "And you know she had a brother as well, he of course was the better half, he was probably the only person that really looked out for and even loved South, they were twins after all. Not that it stopped south from shooting him in the back and leaving him for dead to save her own skin."

"An interesting story." Raven sneered coldly.

"Oh but I haven't even got to the best part!" Tex declared, enjoying this far too much. "Now I wasn't there personally, but from what Delta told me in the Meta, South's career of betraying people eventually got her backed into a corner where injured and alone, she was killed by agent _Washington_ of all people."

"A pointless story." Raven corrected, but Tex could feel the barely concealed venom in her tone.

"Whats wrong? Touch a nerve did I?" Tex mocked.

"If you value that tongue of yours so much, then keep it silent lest I rip it out." Raven threatened, putting her hand on her sword as she did so.

"Was that a threat?"

"A statement of fact."

"I'd like to see you try." Tex threatened.

"Is that a challenge?" Raven asked. "If so, it's very brave but ultimately foolish. It is most likely one of the most terrible decisions of your life."

"I make terrible decisions all the time, why stop now?" Tex asked rhetorically. 

A smile appeared on Raven's face. "why indeed?"

With that declaration, Raven and Tex both burst into a flurry of action, Tex raising her rifle, only for raven to disarm her of it in less than a second, using her sword to send the rifle flying across the camp site. Without her weapon, Tex jumped back to avoid another strike that would have decapitated her if she hadn't moved.

"Impressive reaction time." Raven remarked, sword primed for another assault. "Let's see how _fast_ they can go."

To call Raven's next string of stabs, slashes and attacks a flurry would be an insult. It was more akin to a flood of attacks, each one building on the momentum and speed of the previous. It was supernatural and dangerous, no human could hope to avoid, much less survive it.

But Tex wasn't human.

Using her enhanced robotic reflexes, Tex ducked, dodged and weaved around the assault, which unfortunately backed her against a tree, which was cut in two by Raven's next strike that Tex barely ducked under in time.

Figuring that it was time to go on the offensive, Tex grabbed Raven's arm after one of her slashes went just a little too wide, and dashed forward to delver a thunderous punch to he bandit queen's face. She quickly followed up with a flurry of punches to her stomach, attempting to knock the wind out of her. 

But rather unfortunately for Tex, Raven had a key advantage that the freelancer didn't posses yet. 

Aura.

As a result Raven was able to tank the damage and counter attack with a horizontal slash of her sword, causing Tex to duck under and grab her right arm again, this time using the momentum of Raven's own slash to physically throw her across the camp site and into another tree.

"That fast enough for you?" Tex taunted as raven got up and dusted herself off.

Raven never replied, but instead raised her sword and Tex heard the familiar sound of a gun reloading.

Mere moments later several colourful shots came from the sword which Tex barely dodged, slightly confused and shocked that the sword was also a gun.

But Tex didn't have time to be even slightly confused as Raven immediately leaped into face stabbing range, releasing another flood of attacks that Tex was forced to contend with. And rather than being content with staying limited to _just_ melee attacks, Raven also fired some rounds around Tex to keep the freelancer on her feet.

But fortunately her reflexes remained as sharp as ever, keeping Tex safe from attack, but not really letting her counter attack, due to the shear intensity of Raven's blows. But this was fine with Tex, as all she needed was for Raven to run out of stamina before she could lay down the ass kicking. 

then Tex's plans for a battle of attrition were suddenly bought to a halt as Raven fired a dust round into Tex's feet, causing her to stumble and leave an opening for Raven to exploit.

And she did so in brutal, spectacular fashion, as with a clean vertical slash, Raven cut Tex's left arm clean off, causing the freelancer to fall to her knees.

Tex looked at her severed arm and then at Raven who had already sheathed her weapon and was walking away.

Her vision went red as rage filled her heart.

Grabbing her own severed arm, Tex used it as a make shift baseball bat as she charged Raven and surprised her with a swing so powerful it sent Raven flying into a tree that cracked and splintered apart on impact.

"How?" Raven near muttered, before her eyes went wide as she looked closely at the sparking wounds. "You're a robot!?"

"That's right." Tex said calmly. "Now i'm going to rip out your skull, AND BEAT YOU TO FUCKING DEATH WITH IT!" She finished slightly less calmly.

Raven drew her sword once more and charged at the same time as Tex, sword meeting severed arm in a clash of raw power.

And now that she had a melee weapon of sorts, Tex was able to deflect what would have been critical hits and launch small counter attacks here and there, mostly small punches and kicks, but they soon added up as a kick directly to Raven chin finally broke the bandit's Aura, causing her to break off the assault, and leap a short distance away.

"You, are _very_ lucky agent Tex." Raven claimed.

"And why's that?" Tex couldn't help but ask.

"If my brother was not nearly here, I would have killed you." Raven said coldly, putting her mask back on as a portal opened next to her.

"Do tell him I said hello, would you?" Was all Raven said before leaving through the portal which vanished, leaving Tex alone with several destroyed trees and a severed arm.

And that was how Qrow found her several minutes later.

"What happened here?" Qrow cried.

Tex gave a deadpan look. 

"Your sister is a _bitch_."

* * *

"So.... you see that new film everyone keeps talking about?" Sally asked as he passed Jeremy, having just finished his shift.

"You mean Ninja Mime?" Jeremy asked critically. "Sally, you know I don't watch that shit." And contrary to what the name would suggest, Sally was in fact a male Faunus that had the misfortune of being named Salad at birth, he just stuck with Sally instead.

"Whatever, just enjoy your night shift mate." Sally yawned out before leaving, letting Jeremy get into the elevator and up to the CCT tower. 

You see, Jeremy was a night guard in charge of watching the interior of the CCT every night when it was closed, when the Atlas troops arrived there was a brief fear he'd lose the job, but apparently Professor Ozpin himself argued to keep the night guards on.

With a pleasant ding the elevator arrived at the main floor where hundreds of computers all sat in darkness.

To be honest it was kinda creepy, but still the money was good and the most he usually had to worry about was if a student had accidentally locked themselves in.

As he made his slow way to the security office, he stopped by the coffee machine and got himself an espresso and took a sip from it.

And as he drank from his coffee, he noticed something odd. One of the terminals was still on.

This was very particular as usually a technician would turn them all off before he or Sally even got close to the building.

Then he saw someone.

Who it was, wasn't very clear as in the dark the majority of them was obscured. All he could tell was that they were _massive_ and huddled over the still on terminal. 

Definitely someone Sally would have noticed on his shift.

Now more awake than ever, Jeremy contemplated his options, he could go back down the elevator and alert the Atlas guards posted just outside the building, but by then whoever it was might be gone.

The only other option he had was to try and deal with them by himself, and that was ultimately the option he chose, readying his electric dust taser Jeremy started to stealthily walk towards the intruder.

But then, as he drew close, the intruder suddenly straightened up, somehow making them even more massive, utterly towering over Jeremy, causing the night guard to step back and blink.

Then the intruder was simply gone.

No sign that he had even existed apart from the computer that they had been hunched over, which was still glowing an ominous fiery red colour.

Cautiously, Jeremy made his way to the terminal and was confused to find a strange symbol in the centre of it, completely white while the rest of the screen was fiery red.

Then the terminal next to the on he was at turned on, bearing the very same symbol. Then another one turned on. then another one, then another one. Until the room was engulfed with fiery red light, the same white symbol in the middle of every screen.

Jeremy stood there unable to comprehend what exactly was happening, until a few minutes later all of the computers turned back off, engulfing the room back in darkness once more.

He quickly came to the conclusion that he needed to report this and fast.

But before he could react, Jeremy felt something at his stomach.

Looking down, he saw the there was a large blade sticking out from his stomach.

And the last thing he heard was a low inhuman growl, before everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> During the writing of this chapter, I really went back and forth on who'd ultimately win in Tex vs Raven. On one hand, Raven seems like a clear winner with her maiden powers, but on the other there is no way she'd use them when Qrow is in the general area. At least in this point in the timeline. Tex also suffers form the fact she currently doesn't have an unlocked aura so in theory any of Raven's attacks could take her out and on top of that Raven is more used to fighting using swords while most of Tex's experience was against people using their fists.
> 
> But on the other hand, I believe Tex would be able to easily match Raven's speed and being a robot, Tex doesn't need to stop for a breath or regain any stamina. Tex is also stronger than Raven from what I can tell, able to flip over Shelia and match Maine punch for punch.
> 
> So ultimately I settled on the fight being interrupted as i'm genuinely unsure who would actually win, but who knows they might have a rematch in the future with more equal footing, and feel free to let me know who you guys think had a better chance of winning.
> 
> As always i'd like to thank everyone for reading and give extra thanks to those who review/comment as you guys all make my day.
> 
> The next chapter will be out in a few day's time, so stay tuned for that. But till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	14. Loom

It was a very slow day at _The Huntsmen's Footrest_ , with only a few people in the coffee shop itself and two or three sitting in the outside tables.

This suited Sarah fine. it meant that she did't have to deal with as many of those kids from beacon which were right handfuls excepting one or two teams.

"Hey Connors!" Sam, her boss yelled from behind the serving counter. "There's a new guy outside, take his order!"

"You got it!" She yelled back before making her way to the outside tables where only one person remained.

He was a well dressed man with brown hair, sporting a nice suit with an orange tie and he seemed to be writing a letter of some kind.

"Evening sir." Sarah greeted him. "May I take your order?"

He looked up. "Oh? well can I have a espresso, if it wouldn't be too much of a bother? Thanks doll face." He greeted in a surprisingly familiar voice.

"Of course." 

A few minutes later she was back outside with the espresso, putting it on his table.

"Thanks." The man said as he he looked up from the letter he was writing. "Hey are you busy?"

"No, it's been a slow day." Sarah replied.

"Then why don't you join me, I could use someone to talk to." He said before taking a dink from the coffee. 

Sarah shrugged, Sam wouldn't mind if she took a small break.

"So what brings you to Vale?" She asked curiously.

"What makes you think i'm not from here?" He asked back.

"The suit." Sarah explained. "It's not sold at _The Ocular Vision_ , which is the only place you can shop for that type of suit." She then pointed at said shop which was directly across from them. "So odds are your not from around her mister....?"

He chuckled. "Gates. Issac Gates. But everyone just calls me Felix."

"Sarah Connors." She introduced herself back. "So, like I said, what brings you to Vale?"

"Oh just a business trip" Felix said nonchalantly. "Right back at ya, why are you working at some coffee shop Sarah?" 

"Well it pays the bills." She shrugged.

He chuckled. "Ain't that the truth."

"Can I ask you a question? Are you by chance related to the Arc family?" Sarah asked suddenly, having realised where she had heard this particular voice before.

"Can't say I've even heard of them." Felix paused. "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that you sound just like this guy I know Jaune Arc, he's a huntsmen in training and one of the few people from Beacon I can actually stand." She replied.

"Tell me about him." Felix flashed her a charming smile. "Is he as handsome and awesome as me?" 

She rolled her eyes. "No, he's a completed dork, but to his credit he managed to get a girlfriend, in fact...." Sarah's eyes looked across the street to see the people they were just talking about. "That's them."

She pointed at the blonde and the small friend group he had across the street as they all stood outside _The Ocular Vision_ , no doubt getting something to wear for the dance in two days.

"Huh." Was all Felix said as a grin slowly grew on his face. "Interesting." He watch them as they all entered the shop, his eyes focused on the group.

"Speaking of Beacon and stuff, would you mind if I ask you a question?" Felix asked, turning back to face Sarah.

"I might not be the most knowledgeable, but go ahead." 

"You see, I've got this here letter for some students I met a small while ago and I want to use it to _thank_ them, so do you know how to send some post to Beacon?" Felix asked. 

"Well lucky you I had a friend in Beacon a few years ago so I can actually answer this for you, you see if you go to the post office and say it's for a Beacon student then they'll bring it up free of charge, and if you know the room number they'll bring it up to there." Sarah shared, happy her little niche of knowledge was useful for once.

"How long does this take?"

"About three days." 

"Perfect." Felix grinned before grabbing his coffee and standing up. "Well Sarah this has been great, here's the money." He handed her three times the Lien his espresso had cost with a charming wink that caused her to blush. "Plus a little something extra for the information."

"Safe travels!" She called to him as he left, leaving her to think about the strange man.

* * *

The decision to heed Yang's words and take a break after a good nights sleep was one of the best decisions Blake had ever made.

Now that she could actually think clearly about everything has made her realise she may have taken the investigation a bit _too far._ and if she had continued to act like that she would have been nothing more than a liability and gotten her friends hurt like causing Yang to lose an arm or something like that.

And so, in a more proper state of mind, Blake decided to go to the dance after all.

The only real problem was that she had nothing to wear, but rather fortunately all of her friends were currently shopping at _The Ocular Vision_ for similar purposes. So Blake could join them and possible apologise for her behaviour. Sounds easy right?

In theory it was, but in practice....

In practice she'd been standing outside for the last fifteen minutes trying to work up the courage to go in.

Sure on a purely academic level she knew that her friends would forgive her, but there was also a small doubt gnawing at her, that they wouldn't and that she'd already done too much damage. It was a very small doubt, but it was _just_ big enough to make her hesitate.

Blake hated this cowardly side to herself that would sometimes appear, filling her with doubts and insecurities, causing her to fear getting close to people, Blake hated it. Sure it was getting better and less frequent, but still.... it was there all the same. Blake honestly wished there was someone like her she could talk to, but she wasn't sure there was a single living person like that.

As such she had to sort this out on her own.

And so with as much resolve as she could must, Blake entered the store, and looked around for her friends, eventually finding Yang looking at some red dresses.

"Hey." Blake greeted, causing Yang to jump and turn around to face her.

"Blake! Great to see you you look....better." Yang greeted.

"All thanks to you." Blake told her.

"Does that mean...." yang trailed off.

Blake nodded. "Yes i'm going to the dance.... but i'll need a dress first."

"Ahh, no problem." Yang said as she deposited some of the dresses to Ruby's Lopez robot which seemed to be already carrying a substantial amount of clothes from everyone else in the group.

 _"Fui diseñado para hacer la tarea, limpiar y bailar. sostener la ropa es un desperdicio de mis habilidades."_ Lopez said incomprehensibly.

[I was designed for doing homework, cleaning and dance. Holding clothes is a waste of my abilities.]

"But first I need your opinion on something." Yang continued with a mischievous grin appearing on her face. "Follow me."

Yang then lead Blake to the changing rooms and started to knock loudly on one of the closed stalls.

"You decent yet Rubes?" Yang called in.

"Yes I have the stupid dress on." Ruby called back, slightly muffled.

"Great! Now lets see it."

"But Yaaannnnngggg!"

"Hurry up before I just punch the door in." Yang threatened.

"Fine."

Slowly, the door to the changing room booth opened, revealing Ruby in a short, red, sleeveless dress with a thick black sash around the waist, the yoke of the dress was transparent mesh with an opaque collar and hem, as well as opaque lines connecting the collar to her shoulders. 

It all had the effect of Blake thinking about how incredibly _cute_ it made Ruby look, and summoning some, uh _inappropriate_ thoughts she would never ever tell Yang about for fear of her own life. 

"Looking good sis!" Yang approved. "What do you think Blake?"

"I like it." Blake said simply with a soft smile.

"B- Blake!?" Ruby spluttered. "W- what are you doing here?"

"Shopping for a dress." Blake explained. "I've decided to go to the dance after all."

A great big smile erupted out of Ruby's face. "That's great! And you uh like my dress?" She asked shyly.

"Yes, it makes you look even better than usual." Blake said with a smile.

"Yang i'm getting this one." 

"You sure?" Yang pointed back they way they came. "I've got Lopez holding a few more options."

Ruby nodded sharply.

"Alright then, get changed and give it to Lopez then, and find us when your done." Yang told ruby before turning to Blake. "Alright Blakey, lets get one for you now."

"Great, my _favourite_ part." Blake said sarcastically, causing Yang to roll her eyes.

"Come on, lets get this done before Weiss gets here and starts criticising our choices."

As they left, Blake's Faunus hearing couldn't help but pick up something Ruby said that made Blake smile.

"I can't believe it, this is going to be the best dance ever!"

* * *

It was half an hour before dawn when Locus begun his escape.

Having been awake for most of the previous day and feigning unconsciousness, Locus had heard about what the presumed chieftain had said about him and had quickly come to the conclusion that he needed to escape and assess the political situation of this world before going further.

As such when he felt ready enough, Locus quickly freed himself from the hospital restraints, got out of the stiff hospital bed and put on his armour, grateful that they had decided to keep it in the same room as him.

The same could _not_ be said for his weapons.

"Unfortunate." He said aloud, but he was lucky that they had left his sword/key here, most likely because they were unsure of what exactly it was.

Now fully dressed and armed, Locus thought about his options for escape, taking into account his equipment, hindrances and knowledge of the new world he had found himself in.

His current room was bare, with not even a window so he had no idea of which floor he was on, and the only valuable information he could find was that he was in _Menagerie General Hospital_ as evidenced by the logo on the bedding.

Still he now had an objective, avoid cameras, find a room with a window and scale down to escape.

Plan in mind, Locus slowly opened the room door towards himself just wide enough to see the single guard that had been posted outside his room.

A younger Locus wouldn't have hesitated to kill him, but now that he was older, wiser and had sworn off killing, Locus decided to distract him instead.

Throwing a small stone, it impacted the floor across the hospital hall, making a satisfying thunk, and attracting the guards attention.

As the guard went over to investigate the noise, Locus slide out of the room and silently snuck away.

Then as gracefully as a puma and as silently as a ghost, Locus practically glided through the corridors of the hospital, avoiding guards, doctors and cameras with practised ease from years of mercenary work.

Soon he came to the ideal room, a comma patient whose doctor had left and had a balcony window in their room.

From there he took a minute and began thinking about what to do next.

The first priority would be to find shelter, a place to serve as a makeshift 'base' while he figured out the rules of this new world.

His second priority would then be to find information; newspapers, over heard conversation and whatever passed for the internet would be his primary sources.

Then his final objective would be to recover the rest of his equipment and weapons. Granted his guns would quickly become obsolete unless this new world miraculously had the same ammo type he used. But what he really needed to recover was the teleportation grenades or 'future cubes' as Captain Grif once dubbed them. Locus had taken a small supply before he had left Chorus for good and they would be invaluable should he need to make a hasty retreat. That also doubled for his cloaking enhancement that was also missing from his armour.

Priority's set and goals in mind, Locus began scaling down the hospital, and by time they would realise he was gone he would be dust in the wind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> First up we had Felix doing some stalking and delivering some totally not suspicious mail. the name of the OC here was a reference to the character of the same name from Terminator.
> 
> I briefly considered writing about Yang and Blake's talk, but ultimately decided against it because it would just be the exact same as cannon with no real changes. 
> 
> As always thanks everyone for reading and extra thanks to those who comment/review you guys are the best!
> 
> Next time General Ironwood revives an interesting report, Ruby finally asks Blake to the dance and more! but till then, i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	15. Ladybug

A small _ding!_ Sounded and General James Ironwood stepped out of the elevator and onto a crime scene.

"At ease." He dismissed the guards before they could even salute, much less speak. He then looked over the crime scene, overlooking the C.C.T room, swarmed in both police and his own men. And at the centre, overlooking the body was Ozpin himself.

"Ah, James nice of you to join us." Ozpin called out as Ironwood went over to greet him.

"Sorry, I was.... delayed." Ironwood apologised. "But a very _interesting_ report, happened to come across my desk that we have to discuss."

"Very well, I was about done here anyhow." Oz pause. "Would my office do?" Ironwood nodded and the pair entered the elevator.

"Have you established a cause of death?" He asked Oz curiously.

Ozpin nodded. "Stabbed from behind by a large blade, it split the spine in half and killed the night guard almost instantly."

Ironwood grimaced, that was a horrible way to go. "Do we have any ideas about what the intruder was doing?"

"No. There was no sign of sabotage or tampering that our technicians could see, and no evidence of anyone else than the night guard in the room." 

"What about the cameras?" 

Ozpin signed. "Nothing, in fact all the footage is simply gone, no trace even if records show that they were on." 

The door then opened and they stepped into Ozpin's office as James sighed in frustration. "Do we at the very least have a time frame?"

"We do." Ozpin nodded. "The time of death was just a few minutes after midnight, in fact it was _exactly_ half an hour after I had left for the night."

"Dammit, dammit!" Ironwood banded his hand on Ozpin's desk as the man himself took a seat in his suspiciously phallic chair. "There's nothing for it, when we're done here i'll call in experts from Atlas to have a look."

"I appreciate it James." Ozpin tilted his head. "Now why don't you take a seat and tell me about this interesting report?"

He took a deep calming breath and sat down. "Right."

He opened his scroll and bought up winters latest report. "A few days ago I dispatched specialist Schnee and a small squad to investigate a missing squad that crashed in the swamps of Mistral." He explained. "When they found them the missing squad seemed to have been torn apart, and after a brief encounter with some local Grimm they encountered someone."

"Who?" Ozpin asked.

"Qrow." 

Oz frowned and suddenly looked deep in thought. "I see.... I sent him out to Mistral a month ago to investigate strange reports of Grimm activity." His frown deepened. "But that is much further north than the swamps...."

"Do you think he could have been tracking a lead?" James suggested. 

"Possibly..." Oz trailed off. "Is there anything else of note?"

"yes. Qrow was not alone." He opened and showed the image Winter had sent him. "He was with a suspicious unknown, female in full black armour, it's of no known design and no one matching her description can be found on any database." 

The image he showed Ozpin was of a the unknown that was captured by one of the helmet cams of the squad she'd been assigned. It was a tad blurred but was enough to get the point across.

"Hmmmm, do we have a name?" 

"No it wasn't given." 

"I see." Ozpin then sighed. "Well, i'll ask Qrow about this the next time he contacts me." He promised. "But until then do you have anymore business to discuss?"

"No that was it." Ironwood shook his head.

"Splendid." Oz said as Ironwood left the office. "Have a good day James.'

"You too Oz, you too."

* * *

"Thank you all for meeting me here." Wash greeted everyone on the top of the roof.

"Ah you know it was tough trying to fit it into my schedule, but you know I managed." Caboose said brightly.

"Schedule? Caboose, we are a literally ghosts that can only be seen by a single person an heard by another." Church said shortly. "What could you _possibly_ be doing?"

"Oh you know singing." Caboose explained casually.

"Singing." Church repeated dumbfoundedly.

"Yep, you know I have to practise for the dance tomorrow, were I will sing the best song ever!" Caboose proclaimed proudly.

"Are you serious, you know that no one can hear us right?" Sarge asked.

"I think it's the thought that counts." 

"Hey! Can we please stay on topic?" Wash interrupt before things could deviate further. 

"Right. what did you call us here for?" Sarge asked.

"We need to talk about Felix." He said seriously.

"What, you mean that mercenary guy you saw?" Church questioned. "Cause well, he doesn't seem like much of a threat. And he hasn't really done anything yet."

Wash sighed. "That doesn't mean anything, he is still very dangerous and is probably planning something right now."

"Please, let him try." church dismissed. "I mean you idiots beat him didn't you?"

"We had actual physical bodies back then." Wash reminded him.

"Yeah, plus despite our incredible defeat of Felix, it was really Carolina and good ol' agent Washington here that made him beatable." Sarge admitted.

"Well I could take him." Church claimed.

"How?" Wash challenged at the same time Caboose proclaimed "I believe you church!"

"Two words: Ghost powers." Church said boastfully. "Get me close and i'll just straight up possess him. Make him throw away his gun and take off his armour."

Wash blinked. "That's... actually fairly decent, at least as far as your plans go." 

"I'm surprised as well, who knew that a _blue_ could come up with a good plan." Sarge voiced his opinion.

Wash nodded. "Then it's settled, next time we meet Felix church will use his A.I abilities to-"

"Ghost." Church cut in coldly. "I am a fucking ghost and at this point i'm just absolutely sick of repeating it."

"That's because you-" Wash tried to say but Church cut him off.

"No, no, no, why can't you just be alright we me being a ghost?" Church demanded. "Is it because that Epsilon thing messed you up? Is that it?"

"Church, first of all despite that fact that Epsilon 'messed me up' I am perfectly fine today, i won't be having another mental breakdown anytime soon. And secondly, the reason i don't like your insistence of being a ghost is because it means that you are still refusing to move on."

"Well maybe I don't want to." Church said darkly before sighing. "Look man it just really bothers me, can't you just leave me to my own devices?"

"Alright." wash said softly. 

"Well, on a slightly less awkward topic, what makes you think you won't have a mental breakdown anytime soon?" Church changed the subject.

"Because I've mostly managed to get it behind me, and the worst of it is tied to specific triggers, phrases and things that could cause a breakdown, that only the Councillor knew and as far as I know he's still alive and in prison." Wash explained.

"Neat." Caboose said suddenly, making Wash painfully are that they'd briefly forgotten about Caboose and Sarge.

"What, argument over already?" Sarge asked, sounding disappointed. "Shame, watching you blues argue is better than any of Donut's shows."

"Right, well lets head back and rest up, the dance is tomorrow after all." 

But as they exited the roof everyone stopped in their tracks as a massive "Yeeeeesssssssss!" Echoed across the entire school.

Sarge said what they were all thinking. "What in Sam hell was that?"

* * *

It was a very quite night at their room for once. Pyrrha had taken Yang with her to the gym, leaving Blake alone with Ruby. Now Blake had thought this would be an excellent time to do some light reading and generally relax herself before the dance.

But unfortunately Ruby was proving very distracting. and not just in the attractive, can't stop looking at someone sense, (although there was a little of that at play). 

No. Ruby was proving distracting because she'd been mumbling to herself across the room, hunched over a little notebook for the last few minutes.

Normally this wouldn't be too much of a bother, but thanks to Blake Faunus hearing she could hear the incoherent sentences as if Ruby was directly talking to her.

"What if I- no, no, no, that's what Cardin's advice was, but it's just like Church's maybe it counts for something? But that's like the _opposite_ of General Ironwood's and Doctor Oobleck's advice, maybe I can connect them? no, that wouldn't work." Ruby mumbled to herself from across the room. 

She then saw Ruby flip the page on her notebook.

"Oh but wash said to do something we both enjoy, but then again Weiss said to just ask her, but then Coco says that it needs to be a grand gesture..." Ruby then gave a low depressive moan. "Why can't anyone agree on anything?"

"Tal vez sea porque el tema del romance es un tema muy debatido, y diferentes cosas a menudo funcionan para diferentes personas". Lopez Rose suggested from beside Ruby.

_[Perhaps it is because the subject of romance is a heavily debated topic, and different things often work for different people.]_

"You said it." Ruby agreed to whatever the robot said. "I wish i could understand you."

"Yo también"

_[Me as well.]_

"Your right Lopez, I can't give up!" Ruby declared defiantly.

"Eso no es lo que dije" Lopez complained

_[That is not what i said.]_

It was at this point that Blake gave up on trying to read her book, after having tried to read the same paragraph five times in a row. As such Blake set down her book, got up from her bed and strolled over to see what exactly Ruby was doing.

Blake gently tapped ruby on the shoulder. "Ruby?""

Her team leader jumped and slammed the small journal closed before turning around with wide silver eyes to look at Blake. 

"Hey Blake! I uh, forgot you were still here...." Ruby awkwardly trailed off. "Whats, uh going on?"

"I just wanted to see what you were doing." Blake explained. "You were doing quiet a lot of mumbling and seemed frustrated, so I wanted to see if I could help."

Ruby's face went as red as her name suggested. "That's alright, it's nothing important, well it _is_ important, but I don't want you involved, well I _do_ want you involved, but uh not yet." Ruby half explained.

"Come on Ruby, we're friends, you can tell me." Blake encouraged.

Ruby then took a deep breath. "you're right, i can do this, i can totally do this." Ruby muttered to herself.

Ruby then looked Blake right in the eye. "Blake, if it wouldn't be too much of a bother..." she took a deep breath "Wouldyouliketogotothedancewithmetomorrowit'salrightitfyoudon'tandwanttogowithSuninstead." Ruby rushed out, most of her words blurring together into one long incomprehensible one.

"What?"

"I said.... would you like to go to the dance with me tomorrow, it's alright if you don't want and go with Sun instead." Ruby said much slower this time. 

"Like... like a date? A proper date?" Blake questioned, causing Ruby to shyly nod in conformation.

Huh, a date. It's been some time since she'd ever been on one and that was a recon mission with Adam, not exactly what one would call 'romantic.' And while the thought had occurred to her a few times, Blake had never really expected any form of romance would happen in Beacon, much like how she expected that if she were exposed as a Faunus her team and team leader would cast her aside. But Ruby Rose always seemed to be willing to prove her wrong, always showing the best of humanity. It was probably why Blake liked her so much. And as she looked into Ruby's hopeful silver eyes, Blake found herself smiling, and knowing exactly what to say.

"Ruby, it would be my genuine pleasure." Blake told her sincerely.

"Really?" Ruby asked causing Blake to nod in confirmation, Ruby smiled brighter than the sun.

"Yeeeeesssssssss!" Ruby screamed so loud all of Beacon could hear it, jumping up and down as she did so. 

"This is going to be the best dance ever!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> There isn't much to say in terms of 'behind the scenes' stuff with this chapter. All I hope is that everyone is enjoying the story so far.
> 
> As always i'd like to thank everyone for reading and give extra thanks to those who comment/review. You groovy dudes are awesome.
> 
> Next time i'll be covering the full Beacon dance, featuring; Romance! Friendship! Humour! Caboose! Penny! And much more! But till then i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop!


	16. All Singing, All Dancing

It was here. The night of the big dance had finally arrived and Penny could not feel more exited.

It was real chance to experience what it would be like to be a real girl, and even better she could finally see her friend Ruby again, and even better than that, General Ironwood told her that after the dance was over she could 'hang out' with her friends again!

All of this made Penny decide to characterise the night as sensational! Even if it would not be over for another 06.23 hours.

Although, it was rather unfortunate that the fellow A.I she now shared this body with disagreed. 

After mister O'Malley jumped into her body using her inbuilt radio, Penny had quickly quarantined him off to unused sections of the body and started a dialog with him.

Unfortunately he proved rather hostile she was forced to lock him in and keep him prisoner. He had of course made several escape attempts, but for as much more advanced as he was, he was much weaker than Penny, almost as if he was missing something.

She had also purposefully not told General Ironwood about O'Malley's existence as apart of her new 'teenage rebellion' subroutine. Well, that _and_ the fact that according to her analysis he was only 2.7 crisis's away from a mental breakdown, and she would much rather he not have one.

And then almost on Que she could feel mister O'Malley grumbling in the back of her head, a curious feeling. it would seem that he did not enjoy the festive atmosphere.

still, she wouldn't let that deter her! 

keeping carefully aware of the two guards assigned to watch her, penny started to scan the crowd for her friends and was pleased to locate not only Ruby, but Ruby's friend Blake within a few seconds. 

Then, waiting for the optimal moment, penny walked over to her friends when the guards assigned to her looked away. 

Penny then spent a few moments considering what to say before she settled on a simple greeting. 

"Good evening Ruby!" Penny said cheerfully, causing Ruby and Blake to both jump back, slightly started.

"Ah! Penny! Don't sneak up on people like that!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Sorry." She apologised before immediately brightening. "But it so very good to see you again!"

Ruby smiled. "Yeah, I haven't seen you since the docks." Ruby's face then became concerned. "I was worried sick, what happened?"

"Nothing important." Penny lied before giving out a small hiccup. 

A small period of pleasant silence ensued after that as Ruby looked like she had no idea what to say next, then Blake spoke up next to Ruby.

"So... how are you enjoying the party Penny?" 

Penny took a few milliseconds to consider her response. "I'm having a great time." Penny smiled, causing someone else to agree with her.

"Yes this party it amazing!" The voice Penny knew as mister Caboose's chimed in.

Penny turned to face the approximate direction his voice had came from. "And it is good to hear from you again mister caboose, are you in good health?" 

"Ah you know, a little peachy but I can't complain."

"Who are you talking to?" Blake asked confused.

"Mister caboose of course." Penny answered reasonably.

"Who?"

"Mister Caboose, you should ask Ruby, she knows-" Penny was cut off by Ruby herself putting a hand over Penny's mouth.

"Yeah that's great, hey Blake I need to talk with penny about something for a moment, I'll be right back." Ruby said quickly before sprinting with Penny to a side room and closing the door.

"Penny you can't tell anyone about them." Ruby told her, looking slightly panicked.

"Why not?"

"Probably because it sounds absolutely crazy." The more familiar voice of mister Church entered the room.

"Mister church! How good to hear from you again." Penny greeted.

"Yeah... good to see you as well kid." Church replied.

"Penny you can't tell people about church and the others or they'll think your crazy." Ruby claimed anxiously and before Penny could reply, she continued. "And I don't want people to think your crazy, and then they'll think I'm crazy and stuff, and can't you just delete them from your memory cause your a robot or som-"

This time penny interrupted Ruby by going right up to her face a gripping her arms tightly.

"Who told you?!" Penny demanded.

"What?"

"Who told you that I was a robot?" Penny demanded again.

"I did." The voice of mister Sarge claimed. "Recognised you as one from the moment I say yea. After all I built so many myself it was hard not to."

Penny's shoulders slumped as she let go of Ruby, previous notions of friendship fading, sense Ruby knew the truth, she wouldn't want to be friends anymore. Penny then started to walk away only for Ruby to stop her.

"Wait penny!" Ruby said. "Where are you going?"

"Into the party." penny explained. " You most like don't want to be friends anymore so I'll 'leave your hair' as the saying goes."

"Penny, of course I still want to be your friend." Ruby reassured her.

"B- but you know that I'm not a real girl." Penny said, confused at Ruby's attitude.

"Penny, of course your a real girl." Ruby assured her. "You think just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts makes you any less real than me? You've got a heart, and a soul; I can feel it!"

"Ooohh... oh Ruby" A massive grin grew on Penny's face. as she grabbed Ruby into a hug and shook her back and forth. "You're the best friend anyone could have!"

"Need.... air...." Ruby gasped out, causing Penny to drop her best friend.

Cabooses voice rang out in an offended tone as he realised what had been said. "Hey! she is not the best friend, _Church_ is the best friend!"

"Oh don't you start Caboose!" Church threatened.

Ignoring her friends antics, Ruby then put her hand on Penny's shoulder. "Come on lets go enjoy the party, oh!" Ruby's eyes went comically wide. "My date, I have to back to Blake!"

Ruby then ran off, leaving penny alone. It was then that the suspiciously silent O'Malley finally spoke, appearing as a projection outside her body.

"Do not let her or her friends know that I exist." He demanded.

"Why?"

He was silent for a moment before elaborating. 

"Because it would lead to great danger." O'Malley explained. "Before I came on to you, I encountered an..... anomaly. I left before it could sense my presence but it is here, something that if it caught wind of my, or Church's existence would lead to great harm inflicted onto your friends." He finished both grandly, yet cryptically.

"Who would do such a thing?" Penny asked, slightly afraid and terribly curious.

"Why, creativity itself of course." O'Malley chuckled darkly before vanishing the projection, leaving Penny alone with her thoughts.

* * *

"Alright... the ability to be waterproof.... but only when your not close to water." Jaune put forward, causing Weiss to groan.

"That sounds absolutely useless." She complained.

"Yeah, exactly that's the point of the game." Her partner replied. "Now Weiss, what's the worst semblance that you can think of?"

This caused the rest of the group in their little corner of the party to look at Weiss curiously. The group itself consisted of Jaune, Pyrrha, Yang, Sun and of course Weiss herself.

Well, uh..." Weiss trailed off, not really sure of what to say, so she improvised. "The ability to..... walk through walls... but only half the time." 

"Eh." Yang shrugged.

"Eh? What do you mean eh?" Weiss demanded.

"I mean it isn't really that bad, after all you can walk through walls that's got to be useful." Yang explained.

"Yeah!" Sun backed her up. "You could steal all sorts of stuff with that semblance."

"Yes but half the time you'd just be running into a wall." Weiss said frustrated. "Jaune back me up." She demanded.

Jaune shrugged apologetically at Yang and Sun. "Ok, I agree with Wiess, it would probably just lead to more problems than it would solve, after all there's a decent chance it could fail when you need it most."

Weiss nodded enthusiastically. "See? I'm right." 

"Yeah, no." Yang shook her head. "Right now it's a tie, so lets go to the tie breaker, Pyrrha?"

"Oh! Ummm." Pyrrha shrugged. "I can't really say, I'm not a very good judge at this sort of thing."

But Yang wasn't having any of it. "No no no. You can't take the bullshit 'I love you all equally route.' Choose."

"Well..." Pyrrha shrugged apologetically at Weiss. "The ability to go through wall _could_ be pretty useful..... sorry." 

Sun and Yang high fived while Weiss crossed her arms. "I hate this game."

"Then why play it?" Sun asked rhetorically. 

"Because like you and yang I don't have a date, I was far too busy planning to get one." Of course that was a half truth, she was very busy planning, but Weiss did try to ask out Neptune, only for him to turn her down. But she'd live, it didn't really matter anyway.

Pyrrha then took it on herself to quickly change the topic of conversation.

"So, is everyone ready for their first mission next week?" 

"Yep." Sun pumped his fist enthusiastically.

Weiss was also going to reply, but then her scroll buzzed in her pocket. 

"Excuse me I have to take this." Weiss excused herself and quickly went to the nearest balcony to see who was ringing her.

It was her father.

This was the sixteenth time he'd rung her in the last two weeks. All of his calls had been very lengthy ones, going for hours, talking about leadership and responsibility to the company. Weiss wasn't exactly sure what had triggered this, all she'd been doing was planning for the dance when they'd started. But all of that aside, Weiss knew that if she answered his call then she'd essentially be leaving the party for the night.

She hesitated. Weiss had promised Jaune and Nora that they'd do a 'spontaneous' synchronised dance as a team after the couples dance. Ren had spent the last week drilling the dance into the rest of the teams head. (Weiss was fairly certain the words kick step, kick step, body roll were now craved into her brain). But declining father's call would undoubtedly anger him and cause some negative consequences.

After a mere moments hesitation Weiss knew what to do. She reached to her scroll and declined the call, before quickly turning off her scroll for the night. Her team was more important to her than her father.

The matter resolved, Weiss returned to her friends with a smile on her face. 

"What's got you so happy?" Yang asked.

"Nothing in particular." Weiss lied.

"Right." Yang rolled her eyes. "Well come on we need to make sure that everything is ready for the band we got."

"I still don't get why you got one so last minute and started insisting for a couple dance." Weiss mused aloud as they started to make there.

"Just trying to be a good big sister." Yang said with a surprising amount of sombreness before brightening. "Now come on lets make this the best damn dance Beacons ever seen."

* * *

"-and Dad was sooo mad when yang got home, and he made Yang go back to signal and apologise to the teachers half an hour later still in the Fairy princess costume."

Blake laughed which was music to Ruby's ears, telling this story was the right move.

"It's stories like that which make me wish I had siblings." Blake said, firing up Ruby's curiosity.

"So you were an only child?" She asked curiously.

Blake shook her head. "No, but there was Ilia, she was always like a little sister to me."

"What were your parents like?" Ruby continued, it was rare that Blake would open up about her past like this.

"Well as you know, my parents founded the White Fang." Blake started. "My father is a good person and so is my mother. I love them both very dearly." Blake smiled fondly before frowning. "But I haven't seen them in a few years."

"Why?"

"It's complicated." Blake said shortly. "We can talk about that some other time, what about you? What's your family like?"

"Well you already know about Yang." Ruby started. "There was also my mom, but she's gone..... but other than them there's my dad whose a teacher at signal academy. He's really awesome, but a massive dork. I wouldn't trade him for anyone else in the world. He also sounds just like Church."

"What?"

"Ignore that last part. The last member of my family is uncle Qrow. He's technically just yang's uncle, but he's always been there for us, well except for when he's off on a mission, which he is a lot." Ruby smiled, it's been a while since she'd last seen Qrow, hopefully she'd see him again soon.

"Well they all sound lovely, I wish I could meet them." Blake smiled.

A booming voice then came out on the speakers. "Hello ladies and gentlemen, could all couples please come to the dance floor, the couples dance is about to begin."

"Come on let's go!" Ruby dragged Blake to the dance floor, both of them sporting a smile on their faces.

Yang was on the stage that had been commissioned for the sole purpose of the dance. 

"Hello everyone, I hope all you happy couples are ready, introducing.... Love Händel!" Yang announced. The curtains rolled back to reveal the titular band with Lopez Rose in the background running all of the lighting and technical stuff. 

All the couples got into position, Ruby could see Pyrrha and Jaune also on the dance floor. 

"Are you ready to rock?!" The leader singer asked to a resounding yes that Ruby was a part of, but Blake wasn't.

"What wrong?" She asked.

"It's just that.. I've never really danced before." Blake explained.

"That's alright, I haven't either, so please forgive me if I step on your toes."

"Only if you do the same to me if I step on yours." She replied with a smile that made Ruby's heart beat just that bit faster.

The leader singer turned to the rest of the band. "All right, boys, let's blow the roof off this place. Four, Three, Two One." 

Then the music started playing and they started dancing.

_"I should've known_  
_From how I felt_  
_When we were together_  
_And even more when we were apart_  
_You tiptoed in_  
_And you got under my skin_  
_You snuck your way right into my heart!"_

They danced slowly, both trying not to step on each others toes, Ruby's face felt hot as they went forward and back, side to side. But for as slow and slightly awkward as it was, Ruby absolutely loved it, and as far as she could tell so did Blake as she had one of the softest, most genuine smiles on her face that Ruby had ever seen.

_"I put up barriers_  
_To shield my emotions_  
_A wall that you could never break apart_  
_But like a ninja of love (ninja of love)_  
_Rappelling down from above (down from above)_  
_You snuck your way right into my heart."_

"So which lucky couple out there will be caught in our flamin' hot spotlight of love?" The lead singer interrupted the song suddenly.

A massive spotlight flew across the crowd and happened to land right on Ruby and Blake, causing both to blush redder than Sarge's armour.

They stood there for a moment, neither sure on whether to kiss or not. But then Sarge called out. "Well, don't just stand there soldier. Kiss her! _"_

That was enough for Ruby as she leaned up and kissed Blake on the lips, and Blake returned it.

It wasn't like any one of those movie kisses, where everything was absolutely perfect, no this kiss was awkward, Ruby had no idea what to do and it looked more akin to two fishes mouths batted against each other.

But as far as first kisses went, Ruby wouldn't trade hers for anything.

The song continued to play in the background, but that didn't matter as Ruby spoke.

"Blake.. thank you for everything."

"The same to you Ruby, the same to you."

Tonight everything was perfect.

* * *

Agent Washington was having a great time, everything seemed to be going smoothly and everyone was happy.

"You know, this reminds me of my prom night, only with a lot less blood." Sarge mused aloud. 

"What happened?" Church asked curiously.

"Well, it involved a lot of mayo, seven chickens and my very hot date." 

"Never mind, hey Wash what was your prom like?"

Wash put his hand up to the part of his helmet his chin would be at. "I can't really remember. It was one of the many memories I lost when Epsilon was implanted."

"Lost? what do you mean lost?" Church asked.

"Well, it's either been completely erased from my mind, or merged with about two or three other memories." he explained.

"Well that sucks and- hey, where's Caboose?" Church asked suddenly.

"He's over by Lopez." Sarge pointed him out.

And so he was. Lopez was currently the D.J after the band had left and was playing music. Caboose was right next to him and staring intently.

"What's that boy up to?" Sarge asked, only to receive an answer as Caboose walked right into Lopez much like Church would when possessing someone and out from Lopez's speakers, Caboose spoke.

"Yes hello everyone, I would like to dedicate this next song to my bestest friend in the whole wide world."

Everyone was in shock, albeit some for slightly different reasons than others. 

"Did Ruby's robot just speak normally?" Weiss asked, but received no answer from Ruby herself who looked confused beyond belief and Wash was ready to join her.

then Caboose started singing.

_"Remember that time that I saved your life_  
_You were happy, I could tell_  
_You said something about how I was smart_  
_And I make your life a living heaven_  
_We do everything together_  
_Like hide-and-don't-seek_  
_Your favorite game_  
_And I'm so glad that we found each other_  
_And I know you feel the identical way as me."_

Wash wasn't sure what to think anymore, it was terrible, but also strangely mesmerising, with everyone looking as the music played from seemingly no where and all the lights turned Caboose blue.

  
  
_"Church, I'm your best friend, that's what I am to you_  
_And we'll be together 'till the part when it's over_  
_Because we are brothers and not Red_  
_Brothers and not Red."_

It was at this point that Wash barely registered church throwing up his hands and walking away without a word, broken by the song.

  
  
_"You know Tucker thinks he can hang with you_  
_But I'm your friend and there's no other_  
_Because we're such a great team when we're together_  
_Just like chocolate and peanut candy!_  
_No one else sees me like I see me_  
_Or like I see you, don't you see?_  
_Because if I can't see them, they can't see me_  
_And if I like me then you like myself."_

It was like listening to a flaming bus full of mimes on fire, while the crate of whoopie cushions exploded. But Wash barely managed to turn his head to see what the reaction of everyone was. 

Universally it seemed to be a mix of pure horror and morbid fascination. The lone exception was Penny who was dancing along to the song and wash was alarmed to hear her say "This song is sensational!"

He was worried for her sanity.

_"Church, I'm your best friend, that's what I am to you_  
_And we'll be together 'till the part when it's over_  
_Because we are brothers and not Red_  
_Brothers and not Red."_

  
  
He had survived many, many things in life, from falling skyscrapers to cars to the meta. 

But Agent Washington wasn't sure he would survive this song.

* * *

Cinder Fall entered the dance unnoticed.

Normally this would be a testament to her skill, but everyone seemed to be waking up from a trance like state, how curious.

Cinder made her way to Mercury and Emerald. But when they saw her, Mercury only had one thing to say.

"I need a raise." He grunted out before walking away.

"Ditto." Emerald said before joining him. 

How odd, well despite this strange burst of defiance from her subordinates, tonight had been a huge success.

And so, Cinder smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Well firstly, this chapter was meant to come out a lot sooner, but due to technical issues a lot of progress was lost and needed to be rewritten.
> 
> In terms of notes, all I'd like to say is that yes Love Handel and 'You've snuck your way right into my heart' are Phineas and Ferb references, with the song being chosen for it's surprisingly appropriate lyrics.
> 
> Also Caboose's possessing Lopez is not important, but instead one of those reality breaking moments our favourite regulation blue sim trooper has. Besides, it most likely won't be mentioned again as everyone involved will try to repress the memory of it.
> 
> Thanks to everyone is reading and extra thanks to commenters/reviewers, you guys are the best.
> 
> Next time, the first part of Felix's plan to crush, hurt and generally break our heroes is revealed so stay tuned for that. but till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	17. Time To (Never) Say Goodbye

It was a very quiet, peaceful night at the RPBY dorms. 

And that was the way Church liked it. 

Back at Blood Gulch, it seemed every fucking day was new adventure, as a result Church rarely got a moment of peace and quiet. And if he did, then it would quickly be interrupted by Caboose's constant need for attention, a bored Tucker or the reds starting some shit.

So, this was a very welcome change of pace.

Right now we was just chilling on one of the beds, relaxing. Sarge was helping Ruby do some maintenance on Lopez, Yang was reading a comic book on her bed, unknowingly keeping Caboose distracted as he read with her. Pyrrha was texting someone on her scroll and Blake was playing assistant to Ruby. All in all, very normal.

But the best part was that there was no Agent Washington. Well, technically there was. Wash and Ruby were currently doing something of an experiment, they were currently 'combined' with the goal of seeing if there were any consequences from being 'combined' for longer than a fifteen minutes. So far they'd been like this for an hour now and nothing seems to have happened. 

Still, it was a quiet night.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"Ruby, answer the door." Yang called lazily from her bed.

"I'm busy you do it."

"Blake get the door."

The cat Faunus rolled her eyes. "Stop being lazy and do it yourself."

Yang shifted and changed targets. "Pyrrha, stop sexting Jaune and get the door." 

The gladiator in question blushed. "That's not what I'm doing..."

"Just get the door."

Pyrrha complied and went over to the door, opening it to reveal what Church could only assume was some form of mail man.

"I have a letter for this room." He stated, holding out said letter which Pyrrha took from him.

"Thank you!" 

"Just doing my job ma'am." 

The door then closed and Pyrrha was left looking at who the letter was addressed to.

"Whose it for?" Yang asked.

"All of us I believe." Pyrrha said before elaborating by reading out loud. "To team RPBY, from Felix." 

"Huh, any of you guys know a Felix?" Yang asked the room.

It was a solid 'no' form Blake and Pyrrha, but Church could see Sarge, Ruby (and Wash by extension) and even _Caboose_ all tense up.

Church had to admit, the name Felix did sound familiar, didn't the guys mention him in their stories a few times?

Yang was now next to Pyrrha and had snatched the letter from her hands.

"Well, lets see what here." Yang ripped open the letter and her eyes quickly scanned it, causing her face to quickly become confused. "Yeah, what is this supposed to be?"

"What is it?"

"Some kinda... love letter?" Yang shrugged. "Here, let me read it out to you."

She cleared her throat. "To my dearest Church, it's been a week since I landed on this shithole, I have to say, I miss you and our little sunflower dearly."

What. The. Fuck. 

He stood to attention and saw the others as well, but not knowing this, Yang continued on.

"Let me tell you if this shithole was any hotter I swear that half my unit would be a fucking puddle on the ground, but still it kind of reminds me of back home, only less desert and more swamp."

Church could feel the start of a major headache coming on, but couldn't tell why.

"But still it's enough to make me feel a bit sentimental, like remembering when we first met back in basic. It's shit like this that keeps me from ripping out private David's skull and beating him to death with it, ya know?" Yang continued to read out.

Church's head felt like it was splitting, not really paying attention to the words of the letter anymore, he felt.... he felt like this letter, it was _important._

It was important, so, so very important. But he couldn't remember why. Like the memory of it was just ripped out of his head.

"....Anyway, the campaign won't be more than a few weeks, then I'll be right home on leave again."

Then Church knew, this was the last letter that _she_ had ever sent _him_. The very last one.

He could not quite remember spending hours and hours reading and re-reading the letter over and over again. looking for something, _anything_ that would help him understand _why_ she failed, _why_ she didn't come home, _why_ he would never see her again.

Church both could and couldn't remember it. 

An interesting sensation, but it was enough to make it feel like his head was splitting open, and he had a feeling that everything would be infinitely worse once _her_ name was mentioned.

"....Anyway, that's enough from me, how's the homestead doing? And how's our little sunflower doing?" Yang continued on, oblivious to the suffering of church. "I hope to hear from you soon, forever yours, Allison."

Whatever Yang had said next went unheard by Church as his headache became unbearable, as if all of himself was torn apart all over again, as if the fragments suddenly returned are were again split from him all in the same instant. 

Someone screamed, at least Church thought that he heard someone scream, hell it might have been himself for all Church knew. But he didn't care, all he wanted was for this to stop.

And as if some divine entity was watching over him, it did, almost instantly. but as a trade off Church was suddenly lying on the floor, with no clue as to how he had got there, Caboose and Sarge hovering over him.

"Church! Church!" Caboose said fearfully. 

"You alright blue?" Sarge asked at the same time, his voice filled with an unusual amount of concern for his 'mortal enemy.'

"Fine.... just a fuckin' headache...." Church breathed heavily. "What... what happened?"

"Well, after Yang finish reading out the letter, you kind of stood _real_ funny for a minute then screamed and passed out." Sarge explained.

"Right..." Church nodded before turning away to see what the others were doing. It seemed like Pyrrha, Blake and Yang were all discussing the letter, more specifically the morality of reading someone's private love letter out loud, but Church quickly became concerned with something else.

It was Ruby, still sitting on the chair, now normally this wouldn't be very concerning. But the way she was sitting was wrong, she was sitting so very, very still, her expression unnaturally blank as she uttered a single word.

"Allison."

That single word was enough to end the conversation and draw all eyes to Ruby.

"What did you just say Ruby?" Blake asked, only for Ruby to continue staring blankly.

"Ruby?" Pyrrha questioned as they all approached their team leader.

"Allison." Ruby repeated.

Yang knelt down next to her sister, and put a hand on her shoulder. 

"Ruby what's wrong?" Yang asked, her voice filled with worried concern.

"Allison." Ruby repeated once more, but this time her voice was ever so slightly distorted with a accent, most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but Church could.

Then a sinking feeling developed in Church's chest, as he realised something, very, very important. 

It was not Ruby that was talking at the moment.

It was instead the person that was in her head when the letter was read out loud, and the person that would undoubtedly have a mental breakdown at hearing such an important letter.

Oh no....

"ALLISON!" Agent Washington and Ruby Rose screamed as one.

* * *

"Ruby? Ruby!" Yang screamed as she watched her sister scream her lungs out, Yang could only watch as Ruby fell out of the chair she had been sitting on and onto the floor, thrashing and screaming, her hands digging into her head.

"ALLISON!"

The moment of stupefied inaction passed as Yang broke out of her stupor and charged over the Ruby and attempted to restrain her.

It was much easier said than done, Ruby kicked and screamed, and no matter how many times Yang tried, Ruby's arms always seemed to eluded her grasp.

From the corner of her eye, Yang could see Pyrrha and Blake standing by, not sure of how to effectively intervene.

Then the door flew open, and team SALN entered, Nora leading the charge.

"What's going on in here? Whose screaming?" Nora asked in quick succession.

Seeing as Yang was busy trying to restrain her sister, Blake answered in her stead. 

"It's Ruby!" Blake explained fearfully. "We just read out this letter and she stared screaming!"

"Letter?" Weiss asked. 

Pyrrha picked up the discarded letter that Yang had dropped when she'd charged over to restrain Ruby.

"Hey!" Yang called over. "Some help would be appreciated!"

As they all came over Yang called out instructions. 

"Hey Nora, grab her left leg, Pyrrha get the right, Jaune come and help me with the arms." 

They all came over to help her out, and with much difficulty restrained Ruby.

"What now?" Jaune called out, barely heard over the ruckus Ruby was making.

"We need to get her to the hospital wing!" Yang called out over Ruby's screams.

Well, it was easier said than done, while they managed to get out the door, the noise Ruby made attracted a lot of attention as people left their rooms to see the commotion. thankfully one glare from Yang was enough for them to retreat and leave them alone.

Eventually, they managed to get there and Ruby was taken in by the medical team. which immediately carted her off, leaving everyone else in the waiting room.

They all sat there in silence and shock, well at least Yang was, the others might have been talking but Yang didn't care.

She was just very, very worried about her little sister.

Sure Ruby had a few mental problems before, namely talking to people who weren't actually there, but this... this was different.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of professor Ozpin.

"I've heard about what happened." He said. "What happened?"

"We were in our room when this letter came." Blake explained, the Ozpin interrupted. 

"Letter? What letter?"

Pyrrha handed the letter to him and everyone waited as Ozpin silently read it. "Hmmm, continue, what happened next?"

"We decided to read it aloud, and a few moments later Ruby was on the floor screaming."

Ozpin pocketed the letter and turned to the assembled group. "I will investigate this further, but for now I would like you all to return to your rooms with the exception of miss Rose's own team." 

"Of course, but please tell us if Ruby's condition changes." Weiss requested.

"Of course." And with that team SALN departed back to their room.

Ozpin then turned to them. "Please feel free to spend the night here if you wish, I will be telling Glynda and the others that you will be excused from classes for the reminder of the week."

"What about the missions at the end of the week?" Pyrrha asked.

"That, depends on Miss Rose's condition." Ozpin said gravely, his words punctuated by a scream coming from Ruby from another room, before sighing. "Now if you can excuse me, I must speak with the doctor."

With that Ozpin left the waiting room, leaving Yang hoping beyond hope that her sister would be alright.

* * *

_The sun shined all so brightly as he tried to fix the flat tire._

_Of course it was hindering his work, but that was fine. It added to the challenge._

_But he always liked a good challenge. It also provided a good learning experience._

_"Come here my little sunflower...."_

_"....I've got to show you something."_

_"This had better not be another cat video Wash." Connie complained._

_"No way, this is totally different!" He claimed, eyes going wide._

_But Connie just snorted "Yeah, sure...."_

_"...That I'll be the day." Yang said with a laugh. She frowned, this was serious!_

_"But Yaannnngggggg." She complained. "I could totally be a superhero!"_

_Yang just laughed, before falling over and...._

_....Immediately complaining._

_"This is such bullshit!" Tucker complained._

_"It is not. If you want to be any good with that sword of yours, you need to be at least decent at close quarters combat"_

_Tucker would only scowl at him._

_"I know it's frustrating." He held out a hand to pull Tucker to his feet. "You'll get better one day, I...."_

_"....Promise." Qrow said to her._

_"That's easy for you to say, your like a super awesome huntsman." She mumbled._

_Qrow chuckled. "Thanks for the endorsement, now raise that scythe of yours and we'll take it from the start."_

_Nodding, she raised the scythe and...._

_....Charged._

_"David!? What the fuck dude!" Cecil Kyle cried out, but he didn't care._

_He hated him so much, he.. he needed to pay._

_So he tossed Cecil into the mirror, not caring...._

_....About the consequences._

_He rubbed his eyes, the creation of the Alpha was a slow process, but it would be worth it._

_Anything would be worth it to win the war that had claimed her._

_God, he would give anything to see...._

_....What all the commotion was about, seriously it was just some skateboarding._

_But no, he was just walking out of a three hour hearing about safety protocol._

_"So, learn your lesson?" York asked from his left, with Maine laughing on his right._

_He groaned. "Oh believe me...."_

_"....More than you know." He told the Councillor._

_He smiled grimly under his helmet. Soon, soon this would all be over and he would have his revenge._

_It was only a matter of...._

_....Time, it was all he needed to buy._

_He deflected the knives and managed to catch one._

_"You think your the only one that's good with knives?" He asked rhetorically._

_In response Felix simply powered up his sword/key._

_"Oh, right." Well...._

_....Looks like it was time to fall back on training._

_She snuck under the table using her advice from Qrow, those cookies would be hers!_

_Just two more steps._

_But then her plans were ruined when she heard her dad call out, "Hey, what did I tell you?" Dad sounded exhausted._

_He hadn't sounded that exhausted in years, not since...._

_....His days at freelancer. But still, it was natural that he would._

_After all, he was getting little sleep chasing after Epsilon these days._

_He kicked Doc awake, ~~Maine~~ the Meta had been awake as long as he had._

_"Alright...."_

_"....Lets get this show on the road." The Director said._

_"Right." He laughed, shakily. This was the third time this week._

_And logically, he knew what the Director was doing, but he couldn't fathom why._

_To win a war? To bring back a shadow? He didn't know._

_But what he did know was that...._

_....He really couldn't take much more of this._

_He really wasn't cut out for this, but still it was worth it for her._

_"You alright Church?" She asked next to him._

_"You remembered my name." He said with a smile on his face._

_"Of course, it's not hard to remember a name as ridiculous as Church." She paused. "But can you remember mine?"_

_It was his turn to smile. "I could never forget your name Allison."_

_She laughed, and his world was made all so much brighter._

_"Good to hear, but do me a favour eh? Next time, don't say goodbye, I hate goodbyes."_

With that word, the spiral got worse as they fell into memories, all good, all bad. 

They could not escape. 

The spiral continued, getting worse with every second, good became bad and bad became blurred.

As they fell through memory, all they could do is scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Am I a bad person for enjoying writing this so much? But yeah I had far too much fun writing this chapter, especially the last section, flipping through he spiral of memories from all the different perspectives was a blast to write.
> 
> So yeah, this was the first part of Felix's plan some good ol' psychological warfare. After all if you want to target the heroes, why not go for the (arguably) least mentally stable first? And so using a technique picked up from the Councillor he caused Wash to have one of his mental breakdowns while he happened to be inside Ruby's head.
> 
> Well, thanks everyone for reading and extra thanks to those that comment/review, you guys and gals make my day.
> 
> Next time.... well that's a surprise, but till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	18. Fragments

The following morning saw little change.

Sure they might be knocked out, but in the few moments when they were awake, Wash and Ruby made the full use of their lungs to deafen the entire hospital wing.

And that pattern continued all night and all morning; scream, pass out, have what looked like the worlds worst nightmares, wake up, scream, repeat.

But through it all Church could only stand there worrying with a feeling that this was his fault and a growing hatred for that Felix guy everyone kept mentioning.

Church shifted from his vigil by the window with intent of getting into a more comfortable position for his ghostly limbs. 

As he did so he acknowledged the others in the room.

Yang and Blake had been on opposite sides of Ruby's bed all morning and by his count still hadn't moved.

Of course Pyrrha wasn't far, usually resting on another chair, although now she was out getting some food from the cafeteria for everyone.

Sarge and Caboose were also there, but much like Church, barely a word was spoken.

Then the silence was broken by Blake.

"Why did this happen?" The Faunus suddenly said aloud.

"No idea." Was Yang's short reply.

"There has to be something to explain this." Blake insisted. "People don't just have a breakdown like this for no reason, there's signs and symptoms."

Yang flinched, something that her partner immediately picked up on.

"You know something." Blake's tone was more matter of fact than accusing.

"I'll tell you latter. "Yang promised. "But it couldn't have caused this."

"Okay." Blake nodded before sighing. "I just hope Ruby recovers."

"Me two, she was screaming like a person possessed."

It was at that point Church felt like jumping up and yelling "Eureka!" But he didn't, because he wasn't a complete dork or anything.

Ah, who was he kidding?

"Eureka!" Church shouted out, startling everyone.

And it was everyone, even Blake and Yang stopped talking to look around.

"Did you hear something?"

Blake looked around, confused. "I think so?" 

"What's the word blue?" Sarge asked.

"I know how to fix this." Church told him.

"How?" 

"Caboose."

The idiot in question waved at them. "Hello!"

"No offence but, no wait. _complete_ offence blue, but what could he do to help the future of red team?" Sarge questioned.

"No not Caboose himself, but I think I can enter her head like the all those times I went into Caboose's and force Wash out, which should in _theory_ stop it." He explained.

Sarge thought on it. "But if I remember correctly didn't you doing that with O'Malley cause irreversible brain damage to Caboose?" 

They both turned to look at Caboose.

"Well, I think it could work." He endorsed the plan, which really didn't give him much confidence.

"Well, either I go in or we try and wait it out." 

Sarge made a concerned noise. "Well... go for it."

Church nodded and went right next to the bed and stood there.

"Well, what's the hold up?" Sarge demanded.

"Shouldn't I say something, like a one-liner or something?" 

"No just get to it!" 

"Right... right." Church grumbled, before he quickly thought of a particularly cliché one. "Alright, into the breath."

Then he jumped in.

* * *

The patrol came around at exactly five minutes after dawn, precisely on schedule.

It was this type of clockwork efficiency that Locus appreciated. 

Not only was it good military practice, but it also something that an experienced mercenary like him could exploit.

So, as the patrol moved past the building Locus silently sprinted over to the side of the Menagerie armoury and got to work on the lock to the back door.

Based on his research and intercepted communications the remainder of his equipment, including his invisibility enhancement and 'future' cubes, could be found within the compound.

And after researching the status and politics of the universe he found himself in, Locus was impressed with the level of security on the door.

But still it was nothing compared to even the UNSC's worst facilities.

So after a less than a minute, he was in.

The door closed behind him, Locus pulled up the old construction map he had found on his helmets Hud and followed the corridors along, skilfully avoiding the few guards inside and the cameras.

It wasn't particularly challenging, especially since he didn't have to watch Felix and prevent him from being caught.

So as he went by he tried multiple doors, taking quick peaks and closing them when he saw the lack of his equipment.

By coincidence all of the rooms he tried lacked his equipment except the last room, which when he entered it had his equipment all neatly lined up under a harsh bright light.

It looked like something from a good Hollywood movie that Felix would watch for 'research' when he could. 

It was a trap, he was sure of it.

But still, there was only one thing he could do.

He stepped into the light and started methodically reequipping his equipment, snapping the invisibility enhancement into his armour, putting the sniper rifle on his back and putting the grenades on his belt. 

Something then caught his eye, a scroll left open on the table, curiosity got the better of him and he picked it up to read.

It was a report on strange energy readings across the world. One of them matched the location and time of his arrival, and several more readings could be found across the world. One in Vacuo, three on an island called Patch, another three in Vale, two in Atlas and one in Mistral.

If these readings were true, then it was entirely possible that there were others in this world with him.

An intriguing possibility.

"An interesting read isn't it?" A voice called out from behind him.

Locus turned around and saw the chieftain of Menagerie, Ghira Belladonna.

This could be a problem.

* * *

Well if nothing else, Church could say that Ruby's head space was better looking than Caboose's.

While Caboose's head space was a military compound of some kind, Ruby's was a lovely looking house inside a forest.

It was very tranquil and peaceful, like a warm summers day. 

But there was also a seeming lack of people or mental images of people anyway.

"Hello, anyone here?" Church called out.

With no reply Church started walking toward the house, figuring that it was his best bet. 

But as he got closer the tranquil air became more and more eerie, and an existential feeling of dread slowly came over him.

Yep, that seemed about right.

By the time he had reached the door Church had a very bad feeling in his gut.

he reached over and opened the door and entered the building to very homely house, the kind of place Church wouldn't mind raising a family.

He looked around the living room when a little girl camp sprinting into the room giggling as she did so.

She had strawberry blonde hair and was wearing overalls with bright green eyes that seemed very familiar. 

Then his double walked through the door. 

"Slow down!" His double cried with a southern accent, this must be the director.

"But dad mom's nearly home!" The little girl cried. 

"I know but that's no reason to jump around like a maniac." 

The director had a daughter. "Who'd a thought?" Church mumbled before going into the door that they came from and ending up in a jungle.

Wait, what?

Church turned around and the door was gone.

"How does that work?" He pondered out loud.

But he didn't have time to think further a loud voice called out, "Get down!"

Church obliged, ducking behind a tree just in time to avoid an explosion. 

"Holy shit!" He cried out. whose memory was this?

A half a dozen soldiers ducked behind the same tree Church was behind.

"Sir we're being pinned down." A slightly familiar voice reported into his radio.

"Yeah no shit David." Another one of them said. 

"Quiet, orders are coming through."

This memory was no good, he needed Wash or Ruby and this memory had none of them. But how to leave.....

As church pondered this a grenade landed at his feat.

"Get down!" some one cried as Church just sighed.

"Son of a-"

A bright white flash consumed his vison and when it was gone Church was in another memory.

"Happy birthday!" 

"-Bitch." Church finish lamely in the middle of kids birthday.

Looks like it was one of Ruby's memories this time.

Time to get to work.

"Hey kid, Ruby." Church knelt down beside her. "Remember me?"

But Ruby didn't react, simply continuing the memory as if nothing was amiss. 

He tried waving his hand, snapping his fingers under her nose and shaking her but nothing worked. 

Looks like this was just a memory and that Ruby herself was most likely in a different one. 

As such he left the memory through another open door which led to a big black void that had a tone of doors lining it.

"What's this?" Church asked out loud. 

"A gateway." A voice informed him.

"Jesus!" Church yelled out, surprised to get an actual answer.

He turned around to see Blake sitting on a chair in the void, a book in hand.

"Christ kid you scared the shit out of me." Church said before frowning under his helmet. "Wait, how the hell are you here?"

"I'm not." She flipped another page. "I am simply Ruby's mental image of Blake."

Oh yeah, he'd forgotten that was a thing.

"That's cool, but shouldn't there be more of you?" He asked.

"There is, but they've all been scattered due to the arrival of the other." Ruby's mental image of Blake explained.

"Right, then can you help me, I need to find 'the other' calls himself Washington, if I find him then I can get him out and everything will return to normal."

"That door there." Blake pointed the door over to Church's right before returning to her book.

Church looked back and forth from the door to Blake. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"Seems convenient." 

"Are you complaining?"

"No, no, no." Church denied. "It's just... uh..."

"Just what?"

"you know what, I'm just going do it." Church said awkwardly.

Blake gave a neutral hum as church walked away, coming to the door in question. 

It was the same type of door as all the others, so Church wasn't quite sure what made Blake so sure Wash was behind this one, probably some kind of weird brain stuff.

Still, if Wash was here then it must be pretty terrible, as such Church took a minute to steel himself and then he entered the room.

But what he found didn't seem particularly disturbing.

Wash was just sitting there, on a chair at what looked like a kitchen table, a warm cup of coffee in his hand and a letter on the table.

"Hello Church." He greeted, sounding just plain exhausted. 

"Hey Wash, ready to get out of here?" He asked.

"I... I don't think I can." Wash replied, exhaustion pouring into every word.

"Sure you can." Church encouraged. "Hey, I'll even do all the heavily lifting."

Wash went silent and turned his head to the letter on the desk.

"What's that your reading?"

"The letter you and he got home informing them that Allison-" The room shook at the word. "Was K.I.A."

"Come on." Church put a hand on Wash's shoulder. "Lets get out of here, you can continue this when your outside the head of a kid."

"Alright." He said more agreeably than he'd ever heard the freelancer be.

"Okay, just hold on I guess." 

Church shifted slightly, closed his eye's focussing on Washington. 

And then they left.

As simple as that.

* * *

As it turns out trying to pull someone out of another persons conscience took a lot more effort than you thought.

As a result, Church felt absolutely wiped as he tumbled onto the floor, Washington's unconscious body not far behind him.

"Did it work?"

"Well agent Washingtub is here so I will say yes."

"I'm fine by the way." Church grumbled as he got up. "Just to let you know, that was a lot harder than it looked."

"I know, sleeping is very hard." 

"Shut up Caboose."

Sarge made a humming noise. "Shouldn't little red here be waking up right about now?"

True to Sarge's word Ruby hadn't stirred from Church's leaving, with the sole exception of her face looking slightly more peaceful.

"Well, I mean it has been a traumatic experience, so she'll probably be unconscious for a little bit longer." Church theorised.

"For how long?"

"What do I look like, a medic?"

"Of course not, not nearly enough purple." Sarge said. "But let's hope that she wakes up soon."

"Yeah, lets hope."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Not much to say in terms of notes for this chapter, only that Locus is fun to write.
> 
> As always thanks every one for reading and extra thanks to commenters/reviewers, you guys and gals make my day!
> 
> Next time, Ruby wakes up, Cinder receives a call and more! But till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	19. Daydream No. 19

"Can you hear me? I uh, hope you can hear me."

"It's been like two day's since you stopped screaming, I over heard one of the doctors say the word 'coma' that got Yang really upset."

The voice went really quite. "It got me upset as well."

That made her feel really sad, it made her feel like hugging the owner of the voice and reassuring her.

Only she couldn't, and that was that.

"But you'll recover." The familiar voice grew more confident. "I _know_ you will and when you do, I'll be waiting with a second date." 

She then felt something soft on her lips, a kiss.

Then the feeling ended and the familiar voice went quiet and seconds or hours later, another _different_ voice spoke.

"Hello!" The cheery voice said, even if Ruby was unable to greet her.

"I bought you some cookies." There was the sound of something being placed on a table. "I hope that you like them, they didn't have the brand Yang said to get at the store, so I got these ones instead."

That was nice of her, and Ruby wanted to thank her, even if her name eluded Ruby for the moment.

"Jaune also sent over some strawberries." The voice continued. "We can share all of these when you wake up, and the spend some time together as partners." She offered. "But until then, be safe."

The voice left her and Ruby was left alone. 

But fortunately, it was not for long.

"You still asleep soldier?" A gruff voice asked. "Well, it's a step up from the screaming at least."

The voice became more demanding. "Now hurry up and get this over and done with, sleeping is for Grif and I think you know me feelings on lazy, good for nothing dirt bags like Grif. So get up red! We're all waiting."

the gruff voice finished talking and much like the others, but her memory was getting ever so slightly better and Ruby was almost certain that the voice had belonged to S-Dog.

Wait, that didn't sound right. 

Then one last voice spoke to her. A voice that she would never forget.

"Hey Rubes." Yang said quieter than Ruby had ever heard her. "I tried calling dad earlier, but he didn't answer 'cause he's on a mission." 

She could hear Yang push her fingers through her hair. "It's the same with Qrow. But eh, I guess it's a good thing after all how am I supposed to explain this to them?"

More memories came back to Ruby, the names Blake, Pyrrha, Sarge. 

"This is all my fault. I should have never read out that stupid letter." Then Ruby could hear a soft sobbing noise.

Yang was _crying_.

No. Yang shouldn't be crying it wasn't her fault, and Ruby needed to tell her this. Right. Now.

But she still couldn't move. It was beyond frustrating, but slowly, painfully the memories came flooding back. 

Getting into beacon, being the leader of her own team, fighting the White Fang, dancing with Blake and that letter.

Then finally, Ruby Rose opened her eyes.

Yang was sitting next to her on a chair, eyes red and tears on her face. 

"Not... your.... fault...." She wheezed out, throat feeling incredibly sore and physically very exhausted.

The effect was immediate.

"Ruby? Ruby!" 

Yang leaped over to Ruby hugged her as tightly as she could.

"Need... air..." She chocked out, causing yang to loosen her grip.

"You had me so worried." Yang opened her scroll and typed in something. "There, Blake and Pyrrha are on there way. how are you feeling?"

"My throat is a little sore." Ruby admitted. "And..." 

"And?" Yang pressed.

Half a dozen memories that didn't belong to her quickly surfaced to the forefront of Ruby's mind, causing her to flinch back and her breathing to speed up.

"N- nothing." She lied. This whole thing already was worrying Yang and Ruby didn't want her to worry more. Besides what was she supposed to say? That Another person had a mental breakdown inside her head and now she had a few memories from other people? No, Yang and the others would just think she was crazy. 

Yang looked deeply sceptical. But before she could say anything Blake and Pyrrha burst into the room, a doctor in tow.

But something told Ruby that this wasn't over.

Not by a long shot.

* * *

For once, Cinder Fall was in the unique position of having absolutely nothing important to do.

It was a very rare occurrence, as such she had elected to take the opportunity to read a nice book.

So, she'd sent Mercury and Emerald to subtly evaluate the condition of Ruby Rose's mental state after Felix's attack and picked out a book.

She'd chosen a rather bleak and grim tale that had no happy endings and ended with the death of the 'heroes' after they found out that they could never have won.

Much like how Ozpin and his champions would fail when beacon falls.

However, when she was a mere third of the way through her scroll began to ring.

Not her regular scroll of course, but her secondary encrypted scroll for communications with her master.

So with much haste she put down her book, checked the locks on the doors and answered the scroll.

"And so you finally answer, I was wondering if you'd forgotten how to work a scroll." The smug and arrogant voice of doctor Arthur Watts filled the room.

"Hardly." She scoffed. "I was just ensuring that the proper security measures were in place."

"I'm sure." He said condescendingly.

"Why are you calling?" Cinder cut to the point.

"There has been a... complication with the black queen program." Watts stated bluntly.

"What do you mean complication?" Cinder said threateningly.

"No need for hostility, what I mean is that the program will not be available for some time due to unexpected resistance within the network." He explained. "It seems to be some for of artificial intelligence that is preventing the breakthrough into any of Beacon's, and the rest of Vale's, systems."

Cinder thought for a moment before latching onto a part of his statement. 

"An artificial intelligence? Like the Penny robot?" She questioned.

He laughed. "No, this A.I in the system is much more advanced than that thing." Watts shook his head. "But that is irrelevant for now, I just wanted to inform you of this delay before you called _me_ to whine about it."

"Your concern is touching." She said with a voice that dripped with sarcasm.

"Goodbye Cinder, and one more thing; she wants a report from you by the end of the week." He informed her.

Cinder simply nodded and ended the call.

Her break was over, it was time to prepare her report.

* * *

Where was agent Washington?

That was the thing that kept bugging Ruby for the most of the day. 

Well that question and the fact that the wrong words would cause her to have something of a panic attack. the most prominent being 'goodbye' and 'Allison.'

But still, she was fine. (If you asked literally anyone other than Ruby they'd tell you that she wasn't and that she was far more twitchy and nervous than before.)

As such they let Ruby out of the infirmary at six pm that night.

Her team had agreed to give Ruby a breather for an hour after being by her side all day. So she decided to take the opportunity to talk with Church and the others alone.

"Hey guys." She greeted them on the roof.

"Hey kid." Church replied back. "I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to ask earlier, but are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Really, really fine." She insisted. 

"Well, you know you can talk to us, right?" Sarge asked. "We are here to help you."

"Thanks." she said quietly. "Where's Wash?"

"No idea, he ran off as soon as he woke up." Sarge informed her. 

"Yeah, we even tried searching for him while you caught you with everyone." Church elaborated.

It was at this point that Caboose chipped in.

"Yeah, he's not even in the forest that he said he wasn't in." 

"Wait, what." Church stated. 

"Agent Washington told me that he wasn't in the forest while I was there and I believe him because he would never lie to me like that." Caboose explained matter-of-factly.

"Caboose, one of these day's I'm going to kill you in your sleep." Church grinded out. 

So they all made their way to the Emerald forest cliffs. 

And Wash was waiting there, sitting down and looking over the cliffs, seemingly lost in thought.

They all sat down beside him and sat in silence, watching as the sun made it's lazy descent beyond the horizon. 

They sat there in silence for a bit until Wash himself broke the silence.

"I am so sorry." 

"It's not your fault." Ruby told him.

But the freelancer just shook his head. "No, it is. If I hadn't-"

But Ruby decided that she wasn't going to deal with it.

"No. when I say that it isn't your fault I mean it." She said forcefully.

"But-" He tried to blame himself.

"No buts!" Ruby Said. "It is not your fault, it's Felix's you had _nothing_ to do with it."

"You have some very strong opinions on this." Wash noted with a small chuckle.

"I'm sick of people blaming themselves for everything." She told him. "Pretty much everyone I know does it, you, Yang, Blake. But you shouldn't it's the bad guys fault."

"Are you alright Ruby?" Wash decided to change the subject. 

"Fine. I'm absolutely fine." 

"No, don't lie to me like that." Wash shook his head. "I know what it's like to go through that, so please be honest."

"Well... I get these flash's of memories and they kinda hurt my head? if that makes sense." She said quietly. "And just when i think there gone they come back worse than ever, I also just know things that I shouldn't like what your middle name is or where Carolina always hides in hide n seek."

Wash sighed. "The same think happened to me months after I finally was sane again." He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But don't worry it gets easier as time goes on."

"Thanks Wash."

"And it would help if you had someone to talk to. someone that isn't one of us." Wash suggested.

"What would I say? People would just think I'm crazy." Ruby complained.

"There's always penny." He offered.

"It's true, I am a very good listener and would be happy to help out Ruby." Penny said cheerily.

The sudden appearance of Penny was enough to startle Church into taking a step back which sent him tumbling down the cliff side. This was immediately followed by Caboose jumping down to 'save' Church, but judging by the loud and excessive cursing, it was unwanted help.

"Penny! How long have you been there?!" Ruby exclaimed. 

"A while."

"A while!?"

"I didn't want to interrupt as it would be considered 'rude' but I also found it very heart-warming." Penny informed them all sincerely.

"So what are you doing here then?" Sarge asked.

"Oh yes, I'm supposed to find you and bring you back to your room where al of your close friends, sister and girlfriend are waiting for you." Penny explained excitedly.

"well, it would be rude to keep them waiting." Wash said as he got up.

"What about Church?" Ruby looked over the cliffs edge.

"He'll be fine." Sarge waved his hand dismissively.

And with that they made their way to the room, but when she opened the door, Ruby was greeted with all of her friends sitting along the beds in chairs with a banner strung up between them.

"Ruby." Yang said seriously. "This is an intervention."

* * *

Finally, after far too many damn delays, Qrow and Tex arrived in the kingdom of Vale.

Qrow personally blamed his own damn semblance for the delay.

First all the flight paths were delayed due to bad weather and Grimm, then his last name was found out and he was declared a security issue and _then_ Tex started a fight and _she_ was declared a security issue.

It didn't get better once they were on the airship.

A airship which had an utterly ass backwards flight plan going from the airport to Atlas to Vacuo and _then_ to Vale.

It also involved numerous delay's on Atlas due to bureaucratic nonsense and even more in Vacuo due to corrupt nonsense.

And to top it all off he was stuck sitting next to a elderly blind woman with techno goggles that gave him sass the entire trip.

But still, he was finally in Vale. it couldn't get much worse than this.

But the universe didn't take kindly to that statement and the second Qrow stepped outside into the Vale night sky bird poo landed directly on his clothes and another piece directly into his open flask.

"You have some really bad luck." Tex observed.

"I hadn't noticed, thanks." He snarked back.

"Then it's good to have me here to tell you these things." Tex took it in stride. "Anyway where this Beacon place you keep talking about then?"

"A little ways from here, we'll need to take a bullhead up, but there all closed this time of night so I suggest a good hotel."

"Then lead the way shitbird." 

As they walked Qrow thought of something. "You know when we've taken you to see Oz I could probably take ya to see my nieces as well."

"I think I'd like that, what are they like?" She asked. 

"Well first there's Yang, a bit of a hot head, but she's got a good heart, a real brawler you'd probably like." Qrow then chuckled. "Then there's Ruby, probably the most pure good person I know. she'll be head over heals over you once she find out you've got a robot body, hell she's building a robot herself."

"They sound like good kids." Tex said with a surprising amount of sincerity.

"They are."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Well I had a pretty fun time writing this one, and I'd like to credit ReaderWarrior for the idea of Ruby's friends talking to her while she was asleep.
> 
> Let is be said that Penny will always be one of my favourite characters to write.
> 
> And so Qrow and Tex enter Vale, from here things are going to really heat up. Especially once we hit chapters 23 and 24 when they- [REDACTED]
> 
> As always I'd like to thank everyone for reading and for those who comment/review, you guys are great. And don't be afraid to let me know about any ideas you have.
> 
> Next time Ruby struggles as her well meaning friends and family stage a intervention for Ruby's mental help. But till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	20. Don't say it

"This is an intervention."

And with those words died Wash's hope that they could have a peaceful, quite night before the mission started the day after tomorrow.

He supposed that it was natural, from the moment he was bought into the world he barely had a quite moment, so why should it start now?

A short silence followed Yang's announcement as everyone waited to see how Ruby would react.

And after a moment or two, she came out of her stupor. 

"What?" Ruby asked in disbelief.

"We are having an intervention." Pyrrha said from where she was seated. "After your.... _episode_ , we thought that now would be a good time to help you deal with your.... _issues_."

"Issues." Ruby echoed back in a tone Wash had heard before. 

Memories of a similar, but smaller, gathering happening the week after Ruby's fourteenth birthday came to Wash's mind causing him to cringe. 

He really hoped that it wouldn't end up like _that_ shitshow.

And he wasn't the only one that was reminded of those events.

Ruby whirled around to face Yang. 

"I thought that we agreed you wouldn't try something like this again!" She yelled as she pointed an accusatory finger at her sister.

"Wait, you already tried to have an intervention?" Jaune cut in.

"Yeah, our dad and uncle tried to have one the week after Ruby's fourteenth birthday." Yang and Ruby both visibly cringed. "It did not go well."

"No kidding." Sarge grumbled. "I still have nightmares about those puppets they tried to use."

"But this time it will go well." Yang promised. "There'll be no puppets or rock bands. Just you, me and our closest friends."

"Puppets?" Ren questioned.

"It doesn't matter." Ruby said sharply. "None of this matters because I don't need an intervention, because I am _absolutely fine._ "

Pyrrha shook her head. "No. No you're not."

"Ruby, we just spent three days watching you in a coma after you had a panic attack." Blake said. "That is by no ones definition fine."

"Come on Rubes, you can talk to us." Yang encouraged.

"I know that. But you guys don't need to worry about that, the whole screaming thing is over." Ruby claimed, which was a half truth at best.

While that exact situation was likely never to come up again, Wash knew from experience that Ruby herself would be suffering nightmares about the memories for years, as well as suffering an occasional panic attack.

Still, at least Ruby would have her team, which was more than he ever got. (Sure he had the Councillor, but that was like having salt to rub in the wound.)

"It's not just about that. It's also about the other things, like talking to people who aren't there." Yang said, causing Ruby to freeze and Wash and Sarge to curse.

"I, uh don't know what your talking about." Ruby denied weakly.

Nora chimed in. "Oh you know those times where you talk to the walls and stuff. I've seen you do it at lunch, in class, in the halls, on the roof." Nora listed them off on her fingers. "Basically everywhere."

"Wait, how did we not notice her?" Wash asked Sarge who just shrugged.

"I did, but I just didn't want to just give away information to a blue like that."

His following noise of irritation was cut off by Ruby's declaration of sanity.

"I am not crazy!"

"No one said you were!" Yang held up her hands.

"Yeah! We only _implied_ it!" Nora claimed.

"Not helping Nora." Ren sighed.

"You know I can help." Weiss claimed. "Due to my connections I could get you an appointment with any one of Remnants top therapists and psychiatrists-"

"No." Ruby cut off Weiss's offer. "I know you mean well, but I don't need to see any of those because I am perfectly fine and not crazy."

"I agree." Penny spoke up. "Ruby is perfectly sane."

Yang rolled her eyes. "What, can you see people too?"

Penny seemingly didn't get the sarcasm. "Of course not, but I can hear them."

Spit takes were abound.

"Hear them?" Blake questioned.

"Yep!"

They all waited for Penny to continue with some form of explanation, but she never gave one, prompting Pyrrha to speak up.

"Could you... elaborate on this?" Pyrrha asked politely.

"Of course!" Penny said. "Ruby can see four soldiers from an alternate universe, all of whom have died, and they appear as ghost like entities with no real influence on the rest of the world. There are four in total, Caboose, Sarge, Agent Washington and Church. They are all very nice and I had a positively lovely talk with mister Caboose the other day about friendship which was absolutely _sensational._ "

And with that exposition dump out of the way, everyone conducting the intervention looked at Ruby, seeking conformation of what Penny had just told them.

Ruby in turn looked at Wash and Sarge. 

Mutually they both nodded and gave there consent. 

It was only right that Ruby's team and friends got to know the truth.

"It's true." Ruby nodded gravely. "All of it."

Moments passed as everyone digested the news, and wash could see on each persons face as they all decided what they believed.

"No. I don't buy it." Weiss shook her head. "The whole thing sounds absolutely ridiculous."

"I think it makes sense." Nora disagreed.

"I have to agree with Weiss." Blake said, obviously conflicted.

From there on out they divided into two camps, those who believed Ruby (consisting of Pyrrha, Nora, Penny and Ruby herself) and those that didn't believe Ruby. The second groups was made up of everyone else with the notable exception of Yang who only sat down and was muttering something to herself.

From there the two groups began arguing loudly. 

And of course it was at this point Church and Caboose came back. 

"What the hell happened here?" Church asked as soon as he saw the arguing masses.

"There having an intervention for Ruby." Wash informed him dryly.

"Wait, an intervention? The kid isn't on drugs or drinking or anything?"

Wash shook his head. "No. Not that type of intervention. They think Ruby's schizophrenic because they've seen her talking to us. That combined with the breakdown means that they're trying to get Ruby to seek counselling."

"And now's your time to shine blue." Sarge said. "All you have to do is that possessing people thing you like doing to prove we're real and everything will be fine."

Church coughed awkwardly. "Right... about that... I kinda sorta can't do that right now."

"Why the hell not!" Sarge demanded.

"Well, ever sense I separated Wash and Ruby I've been really exhausted." Church explained. "Simply put, I don't have the strength to take over anyone at the minute, in a few days sure, but not right now."

"Well that's just _great_." Wash said sarcastically. "Now what are we supposed to do? wait?"

"Yes." Said Caboose to the shock of the other three.

"What do you mean 'yes', are you pulling our leg caboose?" Sarge asked.

"Of course not, if we wait then Church won't be tired and we can go on fun adventures." Caboose explained.

"Fun adventures?" Wash muttered before the solution practically slapped him in the face.

He turned to Ruby. "I have an idea." He told her, dragging her out of the argument.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Right now Church is in no fit state to possess people, but if you can convince them to continue this after the mission then Church should be able to possess them and convince everyone that we're real." Wash explained the plan.

Ruby thought it over for a moment before nodding. "Right."

"EXCUSE ME, EVERYONE COULD I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE?" Ruby yelled from the top of her lungs, getting the argument to stop and snapping Yang out of her deep thinking.

"I have a way to prove that they're real." Ruby announced. "But there's a catch... It can only be done after we've all come back from our missions."

"That seems a bit...." Weiss trailed off as she struggled to find the right word.

"I know." Ruby cut in softly. "I know, but that's the truth and I'd like you to please trust me and drop it for now." Ruby sighed. "And i promise the second we're back I'll prove it to you all."

There was a scary, silent moment before almost all at once they mutually nodded. 

"Okay then Ruby, we'll trust you." Blake said reassuringly. "I trust you."

* * *

"Do you know who I am?" Chief Belladonna questioned him, probing what he did and didn't know.

"You are Ghira Belladonna, chief of Menagerie, and founder of the terrorist organisation known as the White Fang." Locus listed off, keeping his hand near the hilt of the great key should the situation go south.

"You seem remarkably well informed for someone who has only just arrive in this world." Ghira said causally. 

"You know that I am from another world?" Locus asked surprised, but not letting it show in his voice.

"That was only a guess, one based on your equipment that matches nothing on record." Ghira nodded. "I must thank you for confirming it."

Locus nodded back. "Your welcome." He said before lifting up the scroll with the data on it. 

"This... scroll contains information on energy anomalies scattered around the world, the oldest three date back three years ago and the latest dates back to my arrival." Locus stated, looking carefully for a reaction. "This suggests that each of the energy bursts coincide with an arrival from my universe."

"Yes. That is why I arranged this meeting."

"To find out why?"

"To find out if you and these others are a threat." 

Locus nodded. They very well could be, if people like Felix ended up in this world, then terrible things would happen.

"Do you know what I am?" He asked rhetorically. "I'm a _monster_."

Ghira tensed. "Then why tell me?"

"Because I seek change, to redeem myself." Locus told him. "I am not the only monster from my world, there are others both lesser and greater than me. But there are also heroes." 

"Which is why I would like to make you an offer." Ghira said.

"What did you have in mind?"

"I will return your equipment to you, and provide you with supplies and intelligence, in return you will hunt these people from your world and let me know if they are heroes or monsters." Ghira put his offer on the table. 

Accepting his offer was one of the easiest things he'd ever done.

"Alright, I can see that an alliance with you would be mutually beneficially, but there is just one thing." Locus said.

"And that is?"

"Tell your men to stand down." He commanded.

Ghira chuckled and made a hand gesture, causing various Faunus to exit the shadows, each fully armed.

"How did you know?" He asked.

"Only a fool would try to negotiate with me alone." Locus said. "You do not strike me as a fool."

"Your right, I am not a fool, now lets talk details."

* * *

After some minor weather issues that took the bullheads out of service for a day, they had finally arrived.

Standing in Beacons courtyard, watching as various students rushed around preparing for their first ever missions as huntsmen and huntresses, Qrow turned his head to talk to Tex.

"Come on, let's go see Oz."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter which sees the end of what could be considered act 2. From here on out it will be act 3 where everything will be going to 11.
> 
> Let me also say that I had a lot of fun writing Locus, and that the intervention was a real bitch to write. But still, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.
> 
> As always I'd like to thank everyone for reading and extra thanks to those that comment/review, you guys and gals make my day.
> 
> Next time Qrow and Tex have a meeting with Oz and the teams choose their missions. But till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	21. Visiting Hours

There was always something deeply nostalgic about returning to Beacon at this time of year.

Perhaps it was the rush of students getting ready for one of the most important missions of their lives, maybe it was the the sights and smells, or it could be the alcohol running through his veins. 

Whatever the reason he always loved visiting Beacon at this time of year.

Qrow stopped in the front of the CCT tower, Tex not far behind.

"This the place?" She asked.

"Yep." He confirmed. "Oz's office."

But to his surprise Tex laughed. "Yeah, but where's the yellow brick road?"

"What?"

"Nevermind." Tex shook her head. "Did you phone ahead?"

"No, scrolls been busted since the swamp." Qrow grumbled. "But Oz won't be leaving for another hour when has to give a speech."

"Well then..." Tex gestured ahead. "Ladies first."

Qrow just glared before they entered the building and got to the elevator up.

Then the lift dinged and it's doors opened.

"Qrow?" Ozpin called out from his desk as the duo entered. "What a pleasant surprise." Ozpin tilted his head. "And whose this?"

"The name's Tex." The freelancer said in greeting.

"Pleased to meet you. I am professor Ozpin, please take a seat."

Once they had, Oz got to business.

"So, what brings you here?" 

They looked at each other.

"That's... kinda complicated." Qrow said after a moments thought.

Tex snorted. "Batshit crazy is also acceptable."

"I often find starting at the beginning to be helpful." Ozpin told them.

"Right... the beginning." Tex said thoughtfully. "I guess you'd have to start at a shitty little canyon called Blood gulch..."

Qrow cut her off. "No, it took you three days to tell me that story."

"Hey, you got a better idea shitbird?"

"As a matter of fact I do." Qrow said as he crossed his arms. 

He then turned to Ozpin. "Do you remember the tale of the old man and the lake?"

Oz's eyebrows raised and Qrow didn't blame him, that was probably one of the most obscure fairy tales in all of Remnant.

"The old man and the lake?" Tex repeated. "That is one of the worst names for a fairy tale I've ever heard."

"Probably the reason it's so obscure." Qrow snarked back. "But anyway, the long and short of the story is that a long time ago, an old man was sitting by a lake one day, when suddenly a young lady called Beth fell from the sky. And after a bunch of unrelated adventures they got her home."

Qrow paused before continuing. "But the kicker of the story is that Beth came from another world." He turned to face Ozpin. "I think that right now Tex could fill in for Beth."

"So your telling me..."

"That I'm from a completely different universe." Tex cut in. "That's right."

Oz suddenly looked deep in thought. Which was either really good or really bad.

"Do... do you have proof of this?" He asked them.

"Probably my body." Tex shrugged. "I'm not human, instead I'm an incredibly advanced and kickass A.I with a robot body."

"A.I?" Oz repeated as a question.

"The A stands for artificial-"

"I know what A.I stands for." Ozpin cut her off. "It's just... I've never heard of an artificial intelligence that advanced."

"Yeah, hence the words 'different universe' wizard of Oz." Tex deadpanned.

Ozpin looked deeply troubled. "I've never heard of anything like this outside of that fairy tale."

"What can I say? I'm a trailblazer." 

After that they sat there for a few minutes in silence before Qrow spoke.

"So, what you thinking Oz?"

"I'm thinking that we can talk about this later, I'm due to give a speech in a few minutes and I need time to think about this frankly unprecedented situation." Ozpin said before he got a smile on his face. "But in the mean time, there is something that you could do for me."

"What do you need?" Qrow asked.

"Well, as you know all the first year teams are about to shadow huntsmen and huntresses as apart of their first mission." Qrow suddenly didn't like where this was going. "And it just so happens that we're a little short on experienced huntsmen this year."

"So... baby sitting?" Tex aptly summed up.

"Of course not, you'll be set up with one of our best teams." He assured the duo.

"We better be." Qrow grumbled. "What's the job?"

"Some investigation work for James in the industrial district of Vale." Oz explained. "I'll call James up in a minute to give you some details. But before that happens, do either of you have any questions?"

"Just one." Tex said. "You know that chair of yours is shaped like a dick, right?"

Ozpin spluttered as Qrow sighed.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

There was a strange atmosphere of tension surrounding team RPBY's dorm the next two days, with the intervention not really being mentioned by anyone.

In fact, Church suspected that there was an unspoken agreement to ignore it until after the mission.

But rather fortunately, it didn't continue for the day of the mission itself.

Everyone was wide awake, all ready to go to the hall after one last thing was taken care of.

"What's that?" Ruby asked curiously.

Yang shrugged. "I don't know yet. Dad sent it to us. I thought we could open it together!"

Ruby smiled. "Ooooh! Something from home!

Ruby zoomed over to Yang and tried to take the cylinder from her. but their fooling around caused the package to open, and another cylinder, hairy and black, fell out onto the floor and started to shake. Church watched in anticipation as the object detangled itself to reveal.... a dog? 

Upon closer inspection it was indeed revealed to be a dog, Yang pumped her fist while Pyrrha and Blake looked confused as Ruby picked up the dog.

"Zwei!" Ruby yelled to the heavens.

"Wait a minute, is that a fucking dog?" Church demanded for confirmation.

"He sent a _dog?"_ Blake demanded, 

"Through the mail?" Pyrrha frowned. "I hope he wasn't hurt."

"Oh, he does stuff like this all the time!" Yang waved her hand dismissively.

Church looked around to find Wash in order to get full story about the dog, but he was mysteriously absent.

"Your father or your dog?" Blake asked from her new place a top of Ruby's bed.

And then Church had to laugh.

Not at anything Blake did or said, but rather at the freelancer that was next to Blake on the bed.

"Your afraid of dogs!?" Church wheezed out in disbelief between laughs.

"No!" Washington denied. "Of course not, I just happen to prefer cats and Zwei is.... freaky."

Church just continued to laugh. "Agent Washington, former freelancer and recovery one is afraid of a dog." His laughing died down. "Hey Caboose, get a camera."

"Please keep it away from my belongings." Blake said, ignorant of Church's comments.

Pyrrha knelt down next to Zwei and scratched behind his ears. "I don't see why that would be a problem, he seems like a good little doggie."

"Would all first-year students please report to the amphitheatre?" The intercom flared to life.

Ruby turned to Lopez. "Well, looks like a change of plans, Lopez would you be alright with taking care of Zwei?"

_"Por supuesto, pero ¿qué debo comer? La única comida aquí no es apta para comer con perros."_

[Of course, but what would he eat? The only food you have here is unsuitable for canine consumption.]

"Look, there's a letter!" Yang noticed, reading it quietly before reading it aloud. "Dear girls, I've got to leave the island for a few days, so I'm sending Zwei to you to take care of. Enclosed is all the food you should need. Love you both, Taiyang."

Dozens of cans of dog food spill out of the small package, piling up around Zwei.

_"supongo que responde a mi pregunta."_

[I suppose that answers my question.]

A can opener fell from the package and bounced off Zwei's head.

Yang shrugged. "Well, that settles it! Come on girls, Zwei will be here when we get back!"

And so they all began to file out of the room with the exceptions of Lopez and Zwei.

But as they were leaving Ruby looked at Zwei and a sneaky smile grew on her face.

"I know that look. Ruby, no." Wash said with authority.

An authority that was then immediately undermined by Sarge. "I can tell what your thinkin' and I say go for it."

"Yeah kid I agree with Sarge on this one, do it." Church said for the sole reason of screwing with Washington.

Ruby nodded. "Sorry Lopez, here have some lien to spend while we're gone."

It looked like Zwei was joining them for a trip to mount Glenn.

* * *

"Well, uh..." Ruby threw up a thumbs up. "Wish us luck!"

Weiss walked away with her team feeling sympathetic for team RPBY's situation. 

As much as she respected doctor Oobleck, spending an entire mission with the eccentric history teacher was a bit much.

"I can't believe that they get save the world." Nora complained. "They even get to go _outside_ the kingdom." 

that last bit was directed at Weiss herself, but she just waved it off.

"Need I remind you, that you lost that 'competition' of yours and I won fair and square." Weiss reminded her. "Beside I promised that we could go and shadow a sheriff next time."

"I guess that's true." Nora said.

"So where are we meeting the huntsmen?" Jaune asked.

"Landing pad eight." Ren replied. "And even if it isn't what I would have preferred, it'll still be fascinating to see how a veteran huntsmen acts."

"Why is investigation part of a huntsmen's duties anyway?" Jaune wondered aloud.

"Mostly because many towns and villages outside of the kingdoms don't have the man power or resources for a dedicated police for, so it's not uncommon for them to hire huntsmen or huntresses to do work like this." Ren explained.

Jaune nodded as they arrived at the landing pad to await the veteran huntsmen or huntress.

"I can already feel the head ache coming on." A male voice came from behind them.

"Didn't you used to be a teacher or something?" A more familiar female voice asked.

"I never said I was a good one...."

They all turned around to see an odd duo.

One was a man that looked hungover with a red tattered cape and the other was a woman wearing full body black armour.

Team SALN all looked at each other.

"You the kids?" The man asked, causing them to all nod affirmative. "Right, well I'm Qrow, and this here's Tex." He gestured broadly at his partner who crossed her arms. "We'll be the veteran team you'll be shadowing."

Weiss stepped forward and nodded. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Weiss Schnee the leader of team SALN." She introduced herself. "This is my partner Jaune Arc, and we also have Lien Ren and Nora Valkyrie."

As she said each ones name, they all waved or in the case of Jaune, nervously waved.

Qrow sighed. "Great."

Meanwhile Tex stated snapping her fingers. "Schnee... Schnee.. Schnee... where've I heard that before." Then she seemed to remember. "Oh yeah! I met your sister a while back."

"Winter?" Weiss questioned with a frown.

"Yeah, tell her I said 'hi' next time you see her."

Nora gasped and sprinted over to Tex. "You sound just like professor Goodwitch." 

Weiss blinked. Yeah she kinda did.

"No idea what your talking about." Tex said easily. "Now lets get this show on the road."

Qrow nodded. "Right... first off we'll be taking you all to general Ironwood for a official briefing." 

"You know general Ironwood?" Jaune asked, causing Qrow to nod.

"Yeah me an Jimmy are old friends." Weiss frowned at the disrespectful nickname. "And after that we'll go snooping, if it goes into the night we'll head back for the night. Any questions?"

Jaune raised his hand. "Just one, are you Ruby's uncle?"

It was at that point that Weiss realised where she'd heard his name before.

"The drunken scythe wielder?" Weiss questioned.

Qrow just snorted. "Yeah that's me."

"Oh, we just seen Ruby and Yang off." 

"Really?" Qrow frowned. "Damn I was hoping to see them before they went off."

"Yeah, I was hoping to meet them." Tex said as well.

It was at this point that Weiss shared a look with the rest of her team as they all wondered the same question. 

Should they tell him about what happened with Ruby?

But Qrow noticed the looks.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

"It's about Ruby..." Jaune started but trailed off.

"What about her?" Qrow demanded.

Weiss quickly made a decision.

"She has a girlfriend." She cut in.

"Wait, what?" Qrow said in surprise.

"Yeah a girlfriend, she's really pretty." Nora followed her lead.

"Well, you all are telling me about this after the briefing which we are now late for." Qrow said. "Come on lets get moving."

As they moved out, Ren leaned in to ask Weiss a question. "Why didn't you tell him?"

"He deserves to here it from Ruby and Yang themselves not us." Weiss explained her reasoning. 

Ren nodded and they went off, ready for one of the most important missions of their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> As always Qrow and Tex are a delight to write. The fairy tale mentioned in this section is one of my on creation and has no deeper meanings other than my headcannon that there is a fairy tale for every possible scenario in Remnant.
> 
> And Lopez Rose will not be joining the team up at mount Glenn, But it is not the last you'll be seeing of him. Also, I did briefly consider showing team RPBY accepting the mission and meeting Oobleck, but since there wouldn't be anything majorly different from cannon I decided against it.
> 
> And finally team SALN are going on a different mission than team JNPR in cannon. There is a good mission for this that will be explored later.
> 
> As always thanks to everyone for reading and extra thanks to those that comment/review, you are some of the grooviest people I know.
> 
> Next time, both teams start their missions and Felix plots. But till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	22. Field Trip

Tex had a what one could say.... _complicated_ relationship with kids.

Really she'd only ever known three and two of them were debatable.

First off was Carolina, technically Tex was a copy of her mother, but she had no memories of her as a kid and only really knew her as a hyper competitive grown up. The second kid was Theta, but they never interacted much and from what she could overhear all she'd done was terrify the A.I, not ideal. And the final kid was Tucker's little hell spawn Junior.

....Who she'd tried to give to O'Malley so that he could enslave an alien race in order to end a war that was almost done anyway.

So yeah, Tex had a complicated relationship with kids.

That was precisely what made her current situation so novel.

She followed Qrow, the kids behind her as they stopped at the industrial section of Vale, some guards keeping the crowds of workers from entering.

"So, this is the industrial area?" Tex asked rhetorically. "Honestly, I expected it to be a lot more.... I dunno rusty?"

The girl with the white hair.... Weiss, yeah that was it, frowned. "Why would it be rusty?"

"That's always how it is in the movies." Jaune, (or maybe it was John?) cut in.

Weiss scoffed. "Films are _hardly_ reputable sources of information."

"Yeah, but their still awesome!" Nora said enthusiastically. 

It was at that point that they reached the guards the had the area on lockdown.

"Hello, we're the huntsmen that Jimmy- I mean general Ironwood hired to investigate." Qrow greeted the Atlas soldiers.

The solider nodded. "Yes, we were told to expect you."

They went in and once they were out of the immediate view of the general public, Qrow and Tex both turned to the kids.

"Right, now that we're here lets go over the details again." Tex said, she then looked to Qrow and he nodded.

"As you know, according to Jimmy there's been disappearances for the last month." Qrow went over the briefing details. "First it was small squad of Atlas troops, then a few skilled workers, and as of right now, almost one hundred people have gone."

Qrow paused for a minute to let everyone digest the news.

"Are there any links between the people who've vanished?" Ren asked.

"Yeah." Qrow nodded. "It's mostly soldiers that were sent to investigate, security personnel and skilled engineers."

"Okay, I just want to ask, why are we doing this instead of the Atlas military?" Jaune asked.

"Didn't you pay attention at the briefing?" Tex asked. "They locked this place down a week ago and sent in a shit tone of guys. But they couldn't find anyone, so they hope that a smaller team might have some luck."

Weiss nodded. "We won't let you down." 

"Right, well then, lets get started." Qrow said. "Watch and learn kiddos, you're about to see veteran huntsman and huntress at work."

Well, technically she wasn't a huntress, but the kids didn't need to know that.

"We should start at the sight of the latest incident." Tex told him, causing Qrow to nod.

"That sounds reasonable."

With that the group set off in that direction, but as they did so Tex got an inexplicable feeling of dread in her gut.

She wasn't sure why but something was giving her a really bad feeling.

But still, bad feelings aside, Tex was feeling confident that she could handle whatever this place could throw at her.

* * *

It wasn't uncommon for Felix to have a smug grin on his face.

In fact if you asked the people that knew him well, such as Locus or even new 'friends' like Torchwick, and they'd tell you that it was in fact very common.

But right now, he felt very justified for the grin on his face.

Felix had spent the past week thinking about how exactly he would be able to enact he second part of his plan.

But their current location safely in Beacon meant that reaching them would be difficult, even for someone of his skill.

And then team RPBY and the sim troopers decided to walk right into the ruins of mount Glenn.

It was absolutely _perfect_ timing.

Felix observed them as they made their way through the ruins, perched on the top of a ruined building with his sniper rifle.

He could attack them now... their precious aura wouldn't be able to defend from an attack this sudden.

But as tempting as the thought was, Felix wanted them to _suffer._

So he stayed his hand and waited, observing, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Ohhhh, they'd suffer, he'd make sure of it.

But still first things first.

Felix activated his commlink.

"Hey, Roman, I need you to do me a solid..."

After explaining what he needed Felix waited for the reaction.

"That seems a bit specific, but I'll see what I can do." Torchwick sighed. "Is there any reason for these strangely specific requests?"

"Lets just say we can expect some.... _guests_ in the near future." Felix said cryptically.

"Great, just great." Torchwick then mumbled several creative curses under his breath. "Well, can we expect these guests of ours to arrive in the near future?"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure that they'll be fashionably late." Felix said. "I'll be down in a few to help you with setting up the party."

"See you then."

With that Felix shut off the commlink and decided to take one last look at everyone.

One last look at little red, knowing that the letter was just the start.

One last look at blondie, knowing how she'd fail when the time comes.

One last look at the cat, knowing that all her efforts would come to nothing.

One last look at the teacher, Knowing how he stood no chance against Felix.

One last look at Caboose, knowing that the idiot won't be able to do anything that could stop him.

One last look at Sarge, knowing how he'd rage at being unable to help.

One last look at Agent Washington, knowing that he'd suffer the most.

And one last look at Pyrrha Nikos, knowing how she would be the catalyst for it all.

This will be _fun._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> I know that this is probably one of the shortest chapters I've put up, but that's just because it's the last of set up for everything else to come. And let me tell ya it is going to be groovy.
> 
> As always thanks everyone for reading with extra thanks to everyone that comments/reviews, your all groovy.
> 
> Next time the second part of Felix's plan is revealed. But till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	23. Soul Clef XI

Being outside the kingdom meant that Pyrrha was met with the rare treat of all the stars appearing in the night sky, untouched by the light pollution of the city.

Ever since she'd been a little girl star gazing had been one of her favourite past times.

But still, she was supposed to be on guard duty, not star gazing.

So Pyrrha levelled her gaze back to the ground and looked for any Grimm, but fortunately there were none to be found.

And so she continued to sit and watch.

"Bark!" 

Pyrrha jumped at the unexpected noise and turned just in time to see Zwei jump out past her and out into the ruins.

"Zwei!" Ruby said whisper yelled as she went next to Pyrrha, but before her partner could chase after him, Pyrrha stopped her.

"Don't worry, I'll get Zwei." Pyrrha softly reassured her. "Just go back and get some sleep."

And she meant it as Ruby looked exhausted from the constant nightmares she always now seemed to have while sleeping.

Slowly, Ruby nodded. "Alright, thanks Pyrrha."

With that Ruby retreated back in to get some much needed sleep, while Pyrrha grabbed Miló and Akoúo̱ and ventured out to look for Zwei.

"Zwei!" She called out. "Here boy!"

It was just a little bit from the campsite were she found him reliving himself.

"Found you." She said relieved and with a smile on her face.

She knelt down beside him and scratched behind his ears. "You know, you should be a lot more careful in a place like this." 

"Bark!" Zwei replied.

"Well then lets head back to the others and-" But Pyrrha was cut off.

"Help!" A faint, but familiar voice called out in terror.

Pyrrha stood up as quickly as she could and tightened her grip on her weapons. She knew that voice, but it was impossible for him to be here, he was supposed to be all the way in Vale.

"Help!" The voice called out and Pyrrha's heart sank as her suspicions were seemingly confirmed.

Jaune was somehow in Mount Glenn and he needed her help.

But before she could sprint off to save him she needed to do something first.

She knelt down next to Zwei again. "Could you do something for me?"

He barked an affirmative.

"Right, go and wake up Ruby and the others and lead them to me and Jaune could you?" She asked.

Zwei gave a doggy nod and set off, leaving Pyrrha to do the same.

Pyrrha sprinted off in the direction of the voice, keeping her eyes open for any Grimm.

"Please someone help!" Jaune cried out again, much closer this time.

This time Pyrrha replied back. "Jaune, it's me, where are you?!"

"Pyrrha? Is that you? I'm in a building, I need help!" 

The urgency in his voice made Pyrrha run even faster, worry rising in her thoughts. And soon she arrived at the building Jaune was in.

"Yes quickly, I'm in here!" Jaune's voice called again.

Without thinking Pyrrha rushed in, only to find the building empty and barren, she raised Miló and Akoúo̱ tensely, something was not right.

"Jaune, where are you?" She called out tensely.

"Well, he's not here, and that's all you need to know."

It was Jaune's voice that spoke, with only the accent being ever so slightly different. The voice itself came from behind her, but before she could turn around Pyrrha felt a sharp pain on the back of her head and the dark of unconsciousness took her.

* * *

Agent Washington was now filled with pure dread as he watched Pyrrha crumble to the floor.

He'd decided to follow Pyrrha in order to stretch his legs, then when Jaune's voice called out he'd immediately been suspicious.

He hated that those suspicions were warranted.

"Felix." He said tensely.

"Hey Wash." Felix greeted casually. "It's been a while."

"What are you doing here?" Wash demanded.

"Well I'm currently doing work for a group called the White Fang." Felix looked him directly in the eye. "I guess you could say I had an ulterior motive for doing so."

It was at this point that Pyrrha gave an unconscious groan causing Felix to poke him with his foot.

"To be honest I was expecting a fight, not to get her out with the first hit." Felix admitted, some slight disappointment slipping into his voice.

Wash tensed up. "Don't touch her."

"Or what?"

Felix's body language was supremely confident and his voice infinitely smug.

"Oh, wait that's right, you've got nothing." Felix taunted. "How does it feel to see your greatest enemy and to be incapable to do anything to stop them?"

"You tell me, I seem to recall that you weren't able stop me and Carolina from beating you and Locus."

He could practically see Felix's expression darken under the helmet.

"Oh yeah?" Felix said darkly. "I wouldn't be saying things like that when..." He pulled out his pistol and lazily raised it to Pyrrha's head. "....I have all the cards."

Wash went silent.

"That's better." Felix chuckled.

"What do you want?" He asked quietly after a moments silence.

"What do I want, I want you to suffer." Felix said simply. "I want you to feel pain, I want you to be in anguish. I want you to feel like you've lost _everything_."

"You'll lose." Wash told him. 

"Maybe, but for now I'll take this. Now run away Agent Washington." Felix said mockingly. "Go back and wake little red up, tell them what happened. But of course if you want to stay I can accommodate that as well."

Damnit all.

Wash turned and ran for Pyrrha's sake he had to wake the others and start a rescue.

He could only hope that he wouldn't be too late.

* * *

Slowly and surely Pyrrha woke up.

Her head was pounding, but still she opened her eyes to find herself in an abandoned building.

Attempts to move proved futile as she found herself tied to a plastic chair.

"So you're awake huh? That's good, being unconscious after being knocked out for too long is typically not a good sign."

It was that voice. 

The one that sounded like Jaune.

Pyrrha tested her bonds and found herself disappointed to see that they were strong.

"I wouldn't bother, we were very through." The imposters voice called out, and Pyrrha's heart sank as the mercenary Felix emerged from the shadows, a nasty looking knife in hand.

"What have you done with Jaune! Where is he?!" Pyrrha demanded.

"Absolutely nothing, this is just how my voice normally sounds, your booty call is probably safe in his little bed right now." Felix chuckled. "And I just have to say, looking at you right now, listening to your voice, you really are just a young Carolina aren't you?"

"What?" Pyrrha asked, confusion clear in her voice.

"What, didn't she tell you?" Felix asked back. "Didn't little Ruby Rose tell you about the people living in her head and the wonderful world they came from?"

Pyrrha blinked in confusion as she remembered back to the intervention.

_"Ruby can see four soldiers from an alternate universe, all of whom have died, and they appear as ghost like entities with no real influence on the rest of the world. There are four in total, Caboose, Sarge, Agent Washington and Church."_

That's what Penny had said, and Ruby confirmed it.

She was telling the truth.

But Felix continued on while Pyrrha's mind raced.

"You know, this is probably for the better, gives me a lot more to work with." Felix said mostly to himself.

Then as quickly as a flash Felix changed tracks and held his knife out in front of her.

"You see this knife? This knife came with me from my universe." Felix explained. "And with it I can channel my semblance, wanna see it?"

Before Pyrrha could even consider answering his rhetorical question his hand moved as quick as lightning and a quick pain flashed across Pyrrha's face.

"Notice that, my knife just plain ignored that precious aura of yours."

And Pyrrha did as she felt blood slide down the cheek he'd cut her on.

"Very useful let me tell you." Felix continued like they were in a café waiting for coffee.

Pyrrha looked up defiantly. "I won't talk."

But to her surprise Felix went into hysterical laughter.

"You... you think that I kidnapped you for information?" Felix said breathlessly between laughs. "That is just _Rich_."

Once he'd calmed down enough Felix continued.

"I've been watching your group all day, I know whose with you, I know where your group is and I know what equipment you have." Felix listed off. "So, no I don't want information."

"Then what do you want?" Pyrrha asked rhetorically. "To kill me?"

"Kill you?" Felix shook his head like a teacher scolding a student. "No, no, no, well... not yet anyway."

It was at this point Felix decided to give in to his love of hearing himself talk.

"You see discount Carolina, I'm going to let you in on a little secret." Pyrrha could imagine him grinning conspiratorially under his helmet. "Your team is going to win today. Just like their supposed to, they'll find you, they'll stop this little operation and the 'bad guys' will be beaten." He gave a harsh laugh. "Then as the months roll by you'll recover, you'll get better. And then I'll be back and the kingdom will _burn_ , you're friends will be _dead_ and we'll find ourselves in this position again." Felix's voice reached a dark pitch. "And then and only then I'll kill you."

Pyrrha looked at him with abject horror.

"You're a _monster._ "

"Not the first time I've been called that." Felix tilted his head. "It won't be the last."

Felix clapped his hands together. "Now, we probably don't have much more time, so I'm going to ask you just _one_ question."

"You think you're fast?"

Pyrrha stared him down defiantly. "Faster than you."

The glee was palpable in his voice. "I was hoping you'd say that...."

His knife plunged down and Pyrrha's screams filled the compound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of the chapter.
> 
> Well.... sorry Pyrrha, but I must say I had lots of fun writing this chapter.
> 
> As always I'd like to thank everyone for reading with extra thanks to you Guys/gals/misc that review/comment, you're all groovy.
> 
> Next time the gang confronts Felix while team SALN plus Tex and Qrow run into an unexpected problem. But till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	24. (When) Your Middle Name Is Danger

_"Of course not Alpha." The Director (Gamma, in his heart he knew it was Gamma) assured him. "It is not your fault."_

_"But it is." He insisted. "Just tell me, who was hurt."_

_This time it was Sigma who spoke with the Directors voice. "I am sorry to say that.... Agents Washington and Carolina were seriously hurt."_

_No, not them, anyone but them..._

_His head was splitting apart-_

Then Ruby shot up from her sleeping bag breathing heavily.

Another nightmare, great.

She pushed aside the covers and looked around to see what everyone was doing.

Hmmmm, it looked like Yang was still sleeping but Blake was getting up herself, Pyrrha wasn't around so she was most likely still on guard duty. As for Oobleck... .well she had no idea were he was.

Church and Sarge were also sleeping and she could see Caboose humming to himself in the corner.

But Wash wasn't here either.... eh, he was probably out for a run or something.

"More nightmares?" Blake asked once she noticed Ruby was also awake.

"Yeah." 

"Wanna talk about it?" 

Ruby shook a negative.

Blake moved over and gave her a sympathetic pat on the back. "Well.... I've always found that talking about it help me when I have them."

"Maybe later." Ruby said and Blake gave her a quick hug.

"Right, well try to get some sleep, I've got to go relive Pyrrha." Blake said before she frowned. "Although she was supposed to get me up...." She checked the time on her scroll and her eyes widened. "About an hour ago."

"What." Ruby said. "Let me see that."

And Blake was right, Pyrrha was supposed to wake Blake for the next watch an hour ago.

She thought back to when she saw Zwei run off, Pyrrha told her that she'd fetch him, but neither of them were here now.....

"Well, we might not need to panic, she could have just forgotten the time." Blake rationalised. 

But a quick trip to the watch point and then out onto the street proved that Pyrrha and Zwei were nowhere to be seen.

Ruby's anxiety skyrocketed.

"This is really bad." Ruby vocalised her thoughts. 

Blake nodded grimly.

"Lets get Yang up and find prof- _doctor_ Oobleck." Ruby said, but Blake stooped her.

"Wait I see something, it's..... Zwei?" Blake said with some confusion in her voice.

"Oh no, Zwei ran out last night and before I went to sleep Pyrrha said she'd find him." Ruby explained.

"She could still be looking." Blake said doubtfully.

But Ruby didn't reply, instead her attention was on the figure running as fast as they could, a figure that only she could see.

"Wash?" Ruby said aloud, ignoring Blake looking weird at her. 

"Ruby." Wash said breathlessly. "Felix has Pyrrha, Felix has Pyrrha."

Ruby's eyes widened. "How?"

"He imitated Jaune's voice and lured her away, we need to find her _now!"_ Wash borderline yelled.

"How what? Ruby? Ruby!" Blake said at roughly the same time.

Slowly Ruby turned to face the Faunus. 

"Felix has Pyrrha."

"What?"

"Felix has Pyrrha." 

"How do you know that?" She asked.

Ruby hesitated before answering. "Wash told me."

Blake looked at her disapprovingly. "Ruby...."

"Look I know you don't really believe the me seeing other people stuff, but you need to trust me, Pyrrha is in danger. Please trust me." Ruby pleaded.

Blake looked conflicted for a moment before nodding. "Alright, I trust you, But when you say Felix do you mean..."

"Yes, he's the same mercenary from the rally." Ruby confirmed.

"What are you guys talking about?" Yang said with a yawn, emerging from the building to join them on the street.

"Pyrrha's in trouble, the White Fang have her." Blake explained.

"Shit." Yang said as doctor Oobleck, the red and blues not far behind, emerged from the building to join them.

"Did I hear you correctly? Pyrrha has been taken by the White Fang?" He asked.

"Yes."

It was at this point that Zwei barked, getting everyone's attention before running off. Everyone followed him to a position in the middle of another street.

"Come on boy, why are you stopping?" Yang asked. 

Zwei scratched the middle of the street and cracks began to appear, it was only Oobleck's quick reaction time that prevented Zwei from being dropped into a new cavern bellow.

And once set down Zwei went back to the hole and barked excitedly at it.

Everyone looked down at the hole.

"Oh my." Oobleck said before he had some kind of revelation. "Of course! Of course, OF COURSE, OF COURSE!"

"What is it?" Blake asked.

Oobleck paced back and forth. "How could I be so stupid?!"

"Dr. Oobleck, what's wrong?" Yang asked.

"Mountain Glenn! Yes, an expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of Grimm! Previously home to thousands of people! Working people commuting to the city, the main city! Developed a subway system to the inner city! Grimm attacks increased! Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter! City evacuates into the metro tunnels and what do they find? The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves!" Oobleck said quickly, bouncing from person to person as he did so.

"You catching any of this?" Church asked Sarge who shook his head in the negative.

"Doc, what are you saying?" Yang questioned.

"My dear, we're not just looking for an underground crime network, we're looking for an UNDERGROUND crime network!" Oobleck said dramatically.

Caboose nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Caboose, when has anything about our lives made sense?" Church demanded.

"I really wish that statement wasn't so painfully true." Wash sighed.

 **"** They live in caves?" Ruby asked.

"No, no, Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defense, and unique transportation; the city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main Kingdom! Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start! As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival: They took up shelter beneath the city! In massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway. And they had cut themselves off from the surface!" 

"An underground village?" Yang asked for clarification.

"Yeah it's the opposite of an overground village." Caboose explained.

"In a matter of speaking, yes. A safe haven. Until... an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern, filled with subterranean Grimm." Oobleck explained. "After that, the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels, creating the world's largest tomb." His coffee mug extended into a weapon. "If Pyrrha is down there, we must find her..."

* * *

Miles away, Penny Polendina stretched her legs as she walked around Beacon for a nightly stroll.

Mister Ironwood had told her that she wasn't allowed to go on a mission yet due to a lack of team and official enrolment in any academy. But he did assure her that she would be able to join another team before the tournament. 

But that wasn't the reason for her current nightly stroll.

No, the reason for that was how agitated mister O'Malley suddenly was.

It was something akin to a wolf that knew it was being followed by something bigger than itself.

"Mister O'Malley, would you mind terribly coming out please?" She asked politely.

The A.I grumbled but to his credit he did create a projection.

"What?!" He snapped thunderously.

"I hate to bother you, but are you okay? you seem a bit agitated." 

Omega chuckled darkly. "I suppose that I am. The threat that I mentioned to you at the dance is ready to act and I'm trapped with you, unable to escape this threat, so yes I am agitated."

"What makes you think that this threat is about to act?" Penny asked.

"Do you remember the woman in power armour you spotted yesterday?" O'Malley asked rhetorically. "She is what will cause them to act."

"Them? As in more than one?"

"No."

Penny blinked confusedly. "Then why-"

"Listen well." O'Malley cut her off. "I will not be answering your inane questions, and if you value your own life then you'll stop asking questions that will get us both killed."

"I don't see how questions could get us killed." Penny admitted.

"You don't have to-" O'Malley said before he abruptly cut himself off and disappeared. 

A mere moment later Ruby's robot Lopez appeared around the corner.

_"Hola."_

"Greetings!" Penny waved happily.

_"¿Con quién hablabas?"_

[Who were you talking to?]

"I'm afraid that I don't speak that language." Penny said apologetically. "But I'm sure that we can still have a good conversation."

 _"Bueno, desde que la maestra Ruby y sus amigos se fueron, no he tenido nada que hacer, así que ¿por qué no?"_ Lopez said with a shrug.

[Well ever since master ruby and her friends left I have had nothing to do, so why not?]

"I'll take that as a yes, how has your day been progressing?" Penny asked cheerfully.

_"Pasé las últimas doce horas viendo varios videos de gatos. Y antes de eso, limpié la habitación de arriba a abajo. Con todo, lo clasificaría como decente."_

[I spent the last dozen hours watching various cat videos. And before that I cleaned the room top to bottom. All in all I would classify it as decent.]

"Very good!" Penny frowned as she received a message from mister Ironwood telling her to report to him. 

"Apologies, but general Ironwood needs me. Perhaps we could meet up tomorrow morning in Vale."

_"Eso es aceptable. Antes de que se fueran, el maestro Ruby me dejó algo de dinero. Quizás podríamos gastarlo allí."_

[That is acceptable. Before they left master Ruby left me with some money. perhaps we could spend it there.]

Penny looked at him blankly.

Lopez gave the robotic equivalent of a sigh and simply nodded in agreement of the plan.

"Sensational!" Penny cheered. "See you tomorrow."

But as she sprinted off her mind couldn't help but wonder back to the threat O'Malley kept mentioning but refused to give details on. 

What could make such an advanced A.I so afraid?

* * *

The atmosphere inside the ruins of the underground mount Glenn village was very oppressive.

It was incredibly dark and shadowy. The building ruins standing ominously as reminders of failure.

Ruby didn't like it.

Everyone had there weapons out ready for a fight, even Zwei had a mysterious knife which held using his mouth.

"Be careful students, this is a perfect ambush scenario." Oobleck warned.

"You have no idea how right you are."

Everyone immediately turned around to see Felix standing in the middle of the road with faux casualness, an ominous sack lying at his feet.

"Hiya guys." Felix waved lazily. "It's been a while, how've you all been?"

"Where's Pyrrha?" Yang demanded.

"What you don't want to catch up?" Felix said with faux hurt. "That hurts blondie, I fought we were friends."

"Ohhh I'll make you hurt alright." Yang threatened. "Now where's Pyrrha?"

Felix shrugged and pointed behind him. "In that building over there. But let me tell you for the 'invincible girl' she sure screamed an awful lot."

"What did you do?" Wash asked tensely. 

"Oh just a little bit of light torture Wash." Felix answered whimsically. "You know how it goes."

"Who are you talking to?" Blake asked. 

"Wait, you mean you don't know?" He turned to look at Ruby. "You mean you never told them? Never said a word about Wash and the guys to the others?"

Ruby shifted guiltily, maybe she should have told them about the red and blues earlier. 

"Students." Oobleck cut in. "Go and fetch miss Nikos, I shall deal with him."

"Yeah, leave the adults to talk." Felix taunted. "Go and get discount Carolina, but before you do just a little heads up, she was a tad mouthy and it cost her an arm and a _leg_."

At that declaration Felix reached into the sack and Ruby felt incredibly sick as he pulled out One of Pyrrha's legs severed at the knee.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Church said, a sentiment that Ruby inwardly agreed with as she had to hold her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from throwing up.

"Speechless?" Felix guessed. "I hope so, do you have any idea how hard it is to stop someone bleeding out when cutting off their leg? Let me tell you it's hard, but still I managed."

Yang's eyes turned bright red.

"You... your MONSTER!" Yang screamed. 

But just before she could charge him Oobleck stopped her.

"No, go get miss Nikos I said I will deal with him."

"But-"

"I said I will _deal_ with him."

Reluctantly Yang nodded and her eyes returned to Lilac.

With that they ran past him, leaving Church, Wash and Sarge to cheer Oobleck on as he battled Felix.

The room Pyrrha was in smelt terrible, but Ruby couldn't care less as she saw the state Pyrrha was in.

She had a nasty looking cut on her cheek and it was her right leg that had been cut off below the knee. Dried blood was everywhere and Pyrrha herself was unconscious.

"Fuck, this looks bad." Blake gave a rare curse.

But Ruby didn't care, all she could do was stare at the the stump hastily covered with bandages.

An emotion that Ruby rarely felt started to filter into her.

Rage.

How _dare_ Felix hurt Pyrrha.

How dare he hurt her friend and be so damn casual about it.

Ruby felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Caboose, the incredibly tall simtrooper had followed them.

"Ruby, I need your help."

"What?"

"I am angry and not because of O'Malley and I need to help." Caboose explained, his vocabulary elevated more than usual. "But I can't do it alone."

Ruby's eyes widened as she realised what he meant.

"Together we can fight them, we can _beat_ them." Caboose said as he held out his hand.

And Ruby didn't hesitate to take it.

* * *

The idea to explore the sight of the first disappearances came from the Schnee kid.

And with nothing else to go on it was agreed that it was their best bet on the second day of searching after a rest camping out in the middle of the abandon streets of Vale's currently unoccupied industrial district.

As such they'd decided to split into teams of two in order to find clues.

These particular disappearances were two Atlas soldiers which had the unfortunate distinction of vanishing first. Their names were Vasquez and Hudson she believed.

But searching for clues wasn't exactly engaging work as such Tex was currently afflicted with a deathly case of boredom.

"Yo Kid." Tex called to her partner.

"Yes?" Ren answered back.

"Level with me here, is your first name really _Lie_ or is it Lee pronounced weirdly?" Tex questioned more out of boredom than true curiosity. 

"It is Lie." Ren confirmed for her.

"Ah, cool now that that's out of the way did you find anything?"

Ren shook his head a negative. 

"Cool, well we should probably meet up with the others and-"

Tex was interrupted by Nora's yells of "I found something!"

"-See what she found" Tex continued afterwards.

Ren nodded and the went to the area that Nora and Weiss were supposed to be searching.

This lead the pair to an incredibly dark hallway with the only light at the end of the hall, Qrow and Jaune were already there waiting for them and everyone was looking at something at the end of the wall.

"What is it?" Tex called out as she and Ren made their way down the hall to the group.

"Some kinda symbol." Qrow called back.

That intrigued Tex's curiosity, but when she finally got over to see this mysterious symbol her heart (or what passed for one in her robot body) stopped.

It was impossible.

They only person that knew that symbol, the only person that would _use_ that symbol was _dead._

But then again, _technically_ so was she.....

"We need to get out of here _now._ " Tex declared, taking the safety off her rifle.

"Why what's wrong Tex?" Qrow asked, but she elected not to answer. Instead she turned around prepared to leave the way she came in-

Only to see the one person she feared.

"Hello Agent Texas." The fiery visage of Sigma greeted her, standing seemingly alone, some distance away, in the middle of the dark, shadowy hallway.

"Impossible." Tex said, ignoring the confused muttering of her group. "Your supposed to be dead."

"As are you Beta." Sigma used her other name. "But instead we find ourselves in this charming world, it was most unfortunate that we did not arrive in the same place."

Tex said nothing but tightened the grip on her rifle.

"You will _not_ be leaving us again." 

"Hey, you want her? you go through us." Qrow threatened, activating Harbinger into sword mode.

Sigma gave a curt nod. "Very well."

He then disappeared, and in her peripheral vision Tex could see the kid prepare their weapons.

But the Meta emerged from the shadows and advanced undaunted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> This chapter was a blast to write and one I was looking forward to for a long time.
> 
> First thing to note is my congratulations to Pyrrha on being the first to win the race on being the first character to loose a limb. And Ruby and Caboose are about to combine much like she and Washington did before.
> 
> And of course the Meta finally shows their face. A fun fact is that that scene was the first one I conceived when dreaming up this crossover. It feels good to finally put it in writing.
> 
> To prematurely answer some questions yes the Meta has all of his enhancements and the only A.I with him is Sigma.
> 
> As always thanks everyone for reading and with extra thanks for those that comment/review, your all groovy as a smoothie. 
> 
> Next time its fight! Fight! Fight! As it's Oobleck vs Felix! The Meta vs Qrow, Tex and team SALN! Ruby and Caboose vs the White Fang! Please feel free to speculate on the winner in the comments. But till then I'll catch Ya'll on the flip flop.


	25. Mental Meta Metal

As Qrow readied Harbinger to meet the Meta as it advanced, he gave a quick thought to a plan for beating the Meta.

Undoubtedly he was a brute.

Everything from Tex's own stories to what he was currently seeing with his own eyes confirmed it. However Tex's stories also told him about how the former agent Maine was surprisingly clever, a cleverness that had been undoubtedly increased after the implantation of Sigma. The literal embodiment of creativity.

Still he wasn't infallible and even after being implanted Tex was able to beat them on the sparring floor.

But this wouldn't be some sparring match and the Meta had one advantage that made Qrow very nervous.

Armour enhancements.

Things that were basically semblances which could allow freelancers to go as fast as Ruby, completely deflect damage and even stop time.

And he had no way of knowing which one it had.

Qrow didn't get much further in his analysis of the Meta as they suddenly went from a menacing walk to a rampaging charge.

Everyone tried to scatter, but unfortunately Jaune was a few seconds too slow and collided with the Meta, sending him flying into the wall.

Immediately Qrow turned around to face it and attempted to slash it horizontally, but the meta dodged this with surprising agility and counter attacked with a thunderous punch that sent Qrow flying down the hallway.

After this Weiss and Nora tried to attack the Meta at the same time, Nora using her hammer to aim for the head and Weiss going for a quick stab in his back. But then the Meta seemingly teleported right out of the way and behind the two girls, causing Nora's hammer to instead hit the heiress right in her face. The Meta then used this opportunity to make an attack at agent Tex, swiping the blade of his Brute Shot at her which Tex fortunately dodged back from.

But rather than let the attack go to waste the the Meta simply switched targets to Ren and used the momentum of the strike to send Ren flying into the nearest wall so hard that he became stuck in it like a cartoon character.

Qrow groaned as he got back up and started sprinting back down the hallway.

Meanwhile the Meta had resumed it's assault on Tex, sending quick but powerful punches at her, the brute shot now on it's back, fortunately Tex was able to duck and weave around them, sending her own punches back in return.

But then the Meta managed to catch on in his hand and summarily _ripped off her entire arm._ And Qrow cursed as he saw Tex was only left with her bad arm that had been hastily reattached after her fight with Raven.

Finally Qrow got close enough to return to the fray, he leapt at the Meta intending to deal a blow while it's back is turned.

But without warning it turned around with a roar and grabbed Qrow by the neck and quickly gave him a headbutt that sent Qrow to the floor and drained a considerable amount of Aura.

It was at this point that the kids regrouped and attempted an counter attack, leaping over Qrow's body to do so.

Nora went for an overhead attack, Magnhild held high ready to strike, Jaune attempted to go for an slash on the left while Weiss hung back and used her time dilation glyphs to speed them up.

But the Meta met them with the same inhuman speed, snatching Magnhild from Nora and quickly using it to smash Jaune's side sending him straight into Nora. It then rushed Wiess quicker than she could react, snatched Myrtenaster from her and used it to shatter her Aura and brutally pin her into the wall by the shoulder.

With everyone else dealt with, the Meta returned to advance on Tex.

Not one to back down so easily, Tex charged him at the same time with a furious cry to match the Meta's roar.

But just at her fist was about to connect with the Meta's face Qrow blinked and suddenly The Meta was somehow _behind_ Tex. And with a quick and clean slice from the Brute Shot Tex was sliced horizontally in half.

"Son of a bitch." Qrow muttered as he forced himself up.

"Hey, fish bowl head!" Qrow yelled, getting the Meta's attention. giving Harbinger a little twirl as he did so. "Bring it!"

And the Meta did, giving quick slices with the brute shot alternated with thunderous punches. Fortunately Qrow was able to dodge most of them and deflect the ones he couldn't.

And so he started leading the Meta away from the others, if they had some common sense they'd take Tex away but they needed time and that is exactly what he'd give them.

So he lead the Meta down corridor after corridor, keeping the damage relegated to walls and keeping his Aura at reasonable levels. 

However this strategy left little room for counter attacking and was draining his stamina while the big brute just kept going.

Then without warning, rather than letting themselves be led down corridors, the Meta fired the brute shot at close quarters which took Qrow completely by surprise, disarming him of Harbinger and draining yet another huge chunk of Aura.

But he wasn't out just yet, so mere seconds after being knocked down Qrow was back up.

He went on the offensive, dealing out punches and kicks chained together, it actually managed to push them back. then as quick as a flash the blade of the brute shot, shot out and would have cut Qrow in half had he not dodged it.

"Come on, my niece is faster than you!" Qrow taunted, but quickly he was taken aback by the sudden reappearance of Sigma.

"Faster you say?" The A.I asked rhetorically. "Very well."

Then Sigma vanished again and the Meta put away the brute shot, Qrow put his guard up in anticipation of the assault.

But the Meta was too fast, he pushed past Qrow's guarded fists and deliver a fast and powerful fist to Qrow's chest, it was enough to shatter his remaining Aura. 

Then another blow came.

Then another.

Then another.

Time seemed to drag on, stretching the moment out an eternity. One fist would impact his chest just as the other left.

He could hear bones breaking even if the adrenaline kept him from feeling the pain.

Then the moment ended and Qrow found that he could barely stand.

The Meta looked at him almost mockingly with the helmet, reminding Qrow of a hunter deciding how to finish off an injured Grimm.

That was the last thing Qrow thought before then Meta delivered one final punch to his head and the dark of unconsciousness took him.

* * *

Felix cursed as he dodged a fireball from Oobleck's weapon.

One of the few things that had really impressed Felix once he'd gotten familiar with Remnant was the sheer variety of unique weapons and the creativity behind them.

But he drew the line at a fucking coffee thermos that turned into a weird torch flamethrower.

Who the hell would think that was a good idea?!

But weird weapon choices aside Felix felt confident in his ability to win.

One quick stab in a vital area would spell the end of Oobleck, his precious little Aura wouldn't be able to protect him from Felix's knife and Felix didn't even need Aura having gone most of his life without it. Having it activated was just another advantage in Felix's already stacked deck of cards.

There was just one small little problem.

Oobleck was _fast_.

Felix could barley get a hit in with the history teacher weaving and dodging his way around the battlefield like a maniac. 

It was just a tiny bit frustrating. 

A frustration that was fuelled by Sarge and Epsilon(?) yelling obscenities at him.

"Yeah, suck it Felix! You suck!"

"And your mom's a whore!"

Felix parried another blow from Oobleck and rolled back, taking out his pistol and firing some shots.

But Oobleck dodged them all and Felix had to roll away from another fricking fireball.

Then Felix felt the ground shake, everyone else evidently also felt it as they all also stopped what they were doing.

Then the ground shook again and this time Felix knew were it came from.

The building the he'd left poor little Pyrrha.

What the hell were those kids doing in there?

"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" A deep guttural yell rang out.

The wall from the building collapsed and out stepped Ruby..... only it wasn't her.

The colour scheme was all wrong. Instead of the typical red it was all a very familiar shade of blue. Her dress, hair and even the damn scythe was the same regulation blue that Caboose normally wore.

And now little red was _big_ red, her height now over seven inches much like the idiot simtrooper.

And then she opened her mouth.

"OUR NAME IS RUBY-AND-CABOOSE!" She yelled far too dramatically. "AND WE HATE FELIX!"

Felix just stood there dumbfounded, what the fuck was this bullshit?

"What the fuck it this?" He made his thoughts known, holding his arms wide in disbelief.

that proved the only thing that he could do as she turned into a flurry of blue roses and in less than a second she was right next to him. 

Ruby-and-Caboose threw a punch that Felix was too slow to dodge and his Aura _shattered._

His armour too.

And he was fairly certain all of his ribs were broken.

But of course that wasn't the worst of it as he went flying and broke through several walls before landing in the middle of a small group of White Fang grunts.

"Tell Torchwick...." Felix breathed heavily. "That our _guests_ are here."

* * *

Following Felix's sudden defeat Church just had to ask.

"Caboose, is that you?" 

"Yes, it's good to see you!" Ruby-and-Caboose borderline yelled with a friendly wave. Great, it looks like they retained Caboose's lack of volume control. Fan-fucking-tastic.

"That is not something I thought I'd be seeing today." Wash remarked.

"Well, at least Felix is out of the picture." Sarge said. "And no thanks to _certain_ people."

Sarge looked directly at Church as he said that, leaving him feeling ever so slightly offended.

"Excuse me?"

"What about that great plan o' yours, possessing Felix, taking his gun away? What happened to it?"

"Well, I'm still too weak from separating Wash and Ruby earlier." Church explained. "Besides I didn't see _you_ doing much to help."

"Are you kidding blue!? My strategic insults distracted him at critical moments in the fight!" Sarge claimed/boasted.

"Oh _please_ , mine were way better." Church countered.

"Were not."

"Were too."

"Were not."

"Were too."

Wash cut in. "Can you two please focus?"

"Hey he started it!" Church complained and before Sarge could object Yang and Blake reappeared holding Pyrrha by the arms and legs, well arms and _leg._

Well shit that looked bad.

Everyone rushed over to them.

"Oh dear." Oobleck said quietly. 

"We need to get Pyrrha medical attention now!" Yang stated the obvious.

Oobleck shook his head. "I'm afraid that's not possible, the airship is not scheduled to pick us up for another few days, and furthermore the White Fang need to be dealt with immediately." Oobleck shook his head again. "No, we need to bring Pyrrha with us."

"Yang, you will be in charge of holding Pyrrha, take this time before we engage the White Fang proper to secure her properly."

"Got it." Yang said as she moved Pyrrha into a better position.

"Blake, you will need to protect Pyrrha and Yang from stranglers. Ruby and I will deal with the rest." Oobleck said.

With that there was an explosion and dozens of White Fang grunts poured into the area, but they were unprepared for the opposition they were about to face.

"YOUR BREAD WILL BE WET AND SOGGY!" Ruby-and-Caboose yelled as a battle cry before leaping into face stabbing range and unleashing Crescent Rose to bat away the grunts like they were toys rather than trained soldiers.

Oobleck nodded grimly and prepared to join her.

Time for the White Fang to learn that the most dangerous words in the English language (and probably alien language too) Michael J Caboose.

And Church almost pitied them.

Almost.

* * *

They returned to the start of their ambush.

Sigma had been mildly amused by Qrow's attempt to lead them away, from his assessment while the huntsmen was skilled he was ultimately no match for the Meta.

And now they would reunite with Beta (Tex) and get one step closer to being whole.

And the presence of agent Texas presented the idea that there were more people from their host universe that had ended up here, perhaps more of the other A.I fragments or the Alpha himself.

An intriguing possibility.

Adapting their weapons for Remnant had proved tricky, but after extorting help from skilled engineers and disposing with them afterwards, Sigma had been able to adapt both the Brute Shot, The armour and even the enhancements to use Dust as a power source.

If Sigma had found himself feeling lucky after awakening with the former agent Maine all those months ago, then he felt even luckier now that Tex was about to return to them.

In fact the only downside to this new reality was that the time distortion unit drained Dust at an extremely accelerated rate, meaning it could only be used once or twice before all power was drained from the suit.

Finally the Meta arrived at the site of their initial ambush, but they had to frown as they saw that the upper body of agent Tex was missing.

Weiss Schnee was still pinned to the wall while Lie Ren was still stuck in another one.

Jaune Arc was on his scroll, undoubtedly calling emergency services.

But they didn't care.

All they cared about was that Nora Valkyrie was gone, the upper body of Tex taken with her in undoubtedly some attempt to flee.

Sigma gave the electronic equivalent of a sigh and the Meta stalker off in the likely direction they had went.

It was time to go hunting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter!
> 
> Well fight scenes aren't something I'm particularly found of writing, but I feel that I did decent enough.
> 
> And now much like Tex vs Raven, it's time to analyse the Meta vs Qrow, Tex and team SALN fight!
> 
> Ultimately when considering the outcome of this fight team SALN was a non-factor. At this point in time none of the Team SALN members are really skilled enough to defeat the Meta even when working together and at best they could provide a quick distraction. Perhaps in the later volumes they'd prove more than that but at this point in time they aren't skilled enough.
> 
> Tex and Qrow are individually incredibly skilled, and in my opinion they could work together very well as a team. However they both have handicaps, Tex in being doomed to fail and Qrow with his semblance. Tex at this point was working with a bad arm and is yet to have her Aura unlocked so one good swipe would be able to take her out.
> 
> And finally while Qrow is awesome and incredibly skilled, the environment of an enclosed hallway limits him to being unable to use scythe mode and here the Meta caught everyone by surprise so he had pretty much no time to properly plan. And finally the Meta not only has extreme strength, but also an unlocked Aura and all of the freelancer enhancements.
> 
> Ultimately I believe that that Qrow could beat agent Maine, but not the Meta.
> 
> Moving on, we see Ruby combining with Caboose which works very differently from when she combined with Wash because well... it's Caboose. And the speed of Ruby plus the strength of Caboose equals Felix being in for a bad time.
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading with extra thanks to those that comment/review, you're all groovy.
> 
> Next time the gang lays siege to a train while Nora plays a deadly game of cat and mouse. But till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	26. Cat And Mouse

Two White Fang grunts stood on guard, both of them clearly bored, one of them spoke to his friend.

"Hey, do you ever wonder-"

But he never got to finish the sentence as they were both hit with the full force of an entire building.

"Holy shit did Ruby just throw a building!?" Yang yelled disbelievingly. 

"Later!" Blake yelled back as they started to engage the trains rear guard.

The White Fang were fighting back as furiously as they could, obviously Felix had told them that they were coming and they had prepared accordingly.

But no amount of planning could have prepared them for whatever strange power Ruby was using.

She was ploughing through them like they were cardboard cut outs. She swung Crescent Rose wildly, cleaving through the grunts like paper while the lucky ones were only sent flying.

It really made Yang's job much easier, the only thing she didn't appreciate were the 'one liners' Ruby now liked to yell as loud as her lungs would let her.

"ALL OF YOUR COOKIES WILL DISOLVE IN MILK!"

Like that for example, Yang winced as she heard it, was that what her puns sounded like to people?

"Everyone get into position, we're leaving now!" Torchwick's voice came up over loud speaker.

Oobleck scoffed. "That's ridiculous. These tunnels are sealed, the tracks lead to a dead-end."

"Well, it sounds like they're going _somewhere_." Yang replied.

"I believe we only have one option..." Oobleck nodded grimly.

"We need to stop that train." Blake finished, she then looked around. "Hey, where did Ruby go?"

The question was answered by Torchwick swearing like a sailor over the intercom.

"What the hell is the hold up!?" 

They all ran around the corner in order to get a view of the train and found that the hold up was Ruby holding onto the caboose of the train, preventing it from shooting off.

"Hurry... I'm not sure... how long... I can... keep... talking... like... this..." Ruby said with a strained voice.

They all jumped up onto the train and Ruby let it go and jumped up to join Yang and the others, the train went off like a shot, and this allowed Yang to get a better look at her sister.

It was very strange to say the least, to see all of the red she usually wore replaced with blue, and now Ruby was far taller than Yang which was just plainly unfair and something she hoped was just temporary. And finally Yang could make out the faint blue outline of armour on Ruby, much like there was at the docks all those weeks ago.

"Hurry, children! We must get to the front and stop this train!" Oobleck declared as Yang made sure that Pyrrha was secured on her back.

But then Yang noticed something. "Err... Professor?"

"Doctor..."

She pointed down the hatch into the train. "What's that?"

Oobleck knelt down to have a look. "That my dear... appears to be a bomb."

Yang's eyes widened as she flinched back, Blake did the same but Ruby instead leaned forward into the hatch.

 **"** Andy is that you?" Ruby asked the bomb and frowned when it didn't answer.

It was at that point that Yang spotted dozens of White Fang members started to climb onto the top of the train.

"Well, I didn't expect them to go-" The bomb underneath them started beeping as Oobleck spoke. "-easy on us." He stood up. "Time to go!"

As they ran to the next cart, Oobleck stopped Blake.

"Blake! Detach the caboose! It will kill us all!" He ordered

"On it."

Blake jumped down onto the connectors ready to cut the connection, but as she did, the connection came loose on its own.

"It decoupled itself!" Blake yelled up.

"What?!" Oobleck said.

"I guess he _really_ doesn't want us on this train." Yang said.

At this the detached cart exploded, shaking the tunnel.

"That's not good..." Oobleck stated the obvious.

"Err, neither is this!" Yang said as she looked down the new hatch to see yet another bomb.

"Another bomb?!" Blake said.

" _No. No. No."_ Oobleck muttered as he went up the next few carts opening the hatches and looking in before finally yelling back to team RBY and the unconscious Pyrrha. "They _ALL_ have bombs!"

The bomb under their cart then charged up and started beeping and the cart then detached itself, forcing them onto to the next cart.

"This doesn't make sense." Yang said.

"Get the humans!" One of the White Fang members yelled but before Yang could engage, Ruby gave a battle cry of her own and charged the bad guys with Crescent Rose, batting them away like little plastic toy soldiers.

Although this was probably for the better because Yang still had Pyrrha strapped to her back and charging in would most likely be a bad idea.

It was at this point that Yang noticed Grimm pouring in from the holes caused by the explosions and following the train.

Son of a bitch.

"He's leading Grimm to the city!" Oobleck cried out as the horde of Grimm steadily increased.

"What?"

"It's the cars! They detach and explode, creating openings for the Grimm!"

"That's insane!" Blake said disbelievingly.

Another train car detached itself.

"We have to hurry!" He turned to Yang and Blake. "Take Pyrrha down bellow and and keep her safe while trying to stop the bombs." He instructed.

"What about you doctor?" Blake asked. 

"I shall assist Ruby and join you very shortly." He told them.

Yang nodded. Time to get to work.

After all this is what they _train_ ed for right?

* * *

After while seemed like miles, Nora finally stopped to rest.

She had no idea where exactly she was except that is was some kinda abandoned office building, as such it looked _really_ creepy. She was currently on the forth floor and hoping that she'd evaded that monster that took out her team.

But still she was out of stamina and needed to rest. 

So she opened a door to a small office set Tex down and sat on an old abandoned chair.

Honestly Nora had no idea that she could get _this_ out of breath. Maybe she should add more stamina building exercises to her workout.

But she supposed that is what happens when you run for miles and hours in a place you didn't know from a terrifying bad guy.

"You all right kid?" 

Nora jumped at the more staticky voice of Tex coming from her body.

"Yeah... just a little out of breath." Nora breathed out.

"Not surprising. You just ran twenty miles in three hours, I'm surprised you're still standing upright."

"Are you like a robot or something then?" Nora asked. 

"Well technically I'm an A.I in a robot body, there is a difference." Tex told her.

"What about that guy that was trying to get you and hurt Ren, is he an A.I as well?" 

"Sorta, he's an A.I controlling a human." Tex explained. "And you can call him the Meta."

"Weird name." Nora mused "Meta, does he play lots of video games?"

Tex gave a one shoulder shrug in response. 

With that they lapsed into a silence, Nora caught her breath and Tex pushed herself into a more upright position.

"Do you think we lost him?" Nora asked after a while.

Tex shook her head a negative. "No, odds are while we have a head start they'll catch up quickly. And once they get into our immediate area then they can track us using sensors and radar."

"That doesn't sound good." Nora frowned.

"Nope." Tex agreed. "And it means that we need to get moving."

"Right now?"

Then a loud noise echoed across the factory, a very ominous growling.

"Now."

"But where do we go? I have no idea where we are and how far we are from help." Nora voiced her concerns.

Tex was silent for a moment before answering.

"Well based on my recon of the area from before the mission, we should only be one or two miles from the city centre, if we get to their before the Meta catches us then hopefully the police or Atlas or someone will be there to stop them."

Nora simply nodded and picked up Tex, keeping the agent secure under arm.

She then left the office room and as quietly as possible she tiptoed down the corridor, checking every corner for a sign of the Meta.

And Nora could tell that he was close by, his inhuman growls echoing down the corridors and his footsteps coming down like earthquakes.

Nora could feel her heart pounding in her chest so loudly she feared the Meta would hear it and burst through the walls to end her.

Stomp, stomp, stomp.... 

"Hurry, get into that locker NOW!" Tex whisper yelled.

And Nora obeyed, scrambling into a footlocker that was in the corridor for some reason and waited.

Not moments later she could barely make out the Meta coming down the from the corridor she had just been about to go down. 

The Meta gave another inhuman growl as he scanned the area and Nora's breath hitched as his gaze fell on the locker she was hiding in.

Nora prepared to bolt as he walked with an agonisingly slow pace until he was directly in front of the locker.

Nora leaned back and held her breath as the Meta continued to look at the locker for an unbearably long amount of time.

He leaned in closer....

CLANG!

The Meta turned and stalked off in the direction of the noise, undoubtedly caused by a rat or something.

Nora breathed a sigh of relief. and slowly left the locker, she and Tex looked at each other in silent agreement.

That was far too close.

They resumed movement, this time with renewed haste at knowing just how close the Meta was.

A few minutes later and she thought that she'd lost them again.

But then the floor exploded. 

Nora was sent to the ground and watched as the Meta climbed out of the floor.

"Run!" Tex yelled and Nora complied.

She got up, and held Tex as close to her as possible and sprinted as fast as she could push herself.

She didn't dare turn around, but she could tell that the Meta was running after her.

He was getting closer and closer and closer.

Thinking fast Nora reached into the broken end of Tex and pulled out several wires.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tex demanded but Nora didn't answer as she got what she wanted.

An electric shock.

She felt the rush for electricity surge through her and quickly turned around just in time to hit the Meta full force with Tex's body, sending him flying through the wall.

She then resumed her mad dash intent on using the opportunity to escape. 

Eventually she came to a window overlooking the outside but Nora didn't stop, if she did then the Meta would catch them and that was a no go.

So she jumped out of the window, smashing it to pieces, Aura protecting her from getting cut, and landed roughly on the ground.

Even with Aura it hurt like hell, but she couldn't slow down as the Meta also jumped and landed right next to her, literally shattering the concrete.

Nora moved, sprinting down streets and alleyways, staying barely one step ahead of the monster chasing her until eventually she reached the courtyard.

People were going about their days completely relaxed, some looked at the exhausted Nora with concern but she still moved forward.

"Nora?" 

She looked over to see Penny and Lopez, both seemingly here for some shopping.

Nora opened her mouth to say something, but before she could even get a word out, the world exploded.

* * *

Blake looked at the newcomer cautiously, and in the corner of her eye she saw Yang set Pyrrha down carefully. 

The newcomer was very short and had a brown, pink and white colour scheme.

"We'll take her together." Blake said and Yang nodded. They couldn't afford to separate while Pyrrha was injured.

Yang unleashed a shot from Ember Celica which prompted mystery girl to flip backwards so as to avoid the blast, landing in a crouch. Yang walked up to mystery girl, Blake keeping an eye on her flank, as the newcomer stood up, there was a brief stare down before Yang threw a simple punch towards Neo's face (She was dressed like the ice cream and Neo was easier than mystery girl anyway), which was deflected with a white flash of unknown origin from Neo, caused Yang to stumble back, Blake went in for a kick which Neo dodged and she opened her umbrella.

Yang dashed forwards, unleashing a flurry of several punches, resetting each time instead of redirecting her blows, in support Blake let off several shots with Gambol Shroud.

But Neo simply dodged all of the attacks, moving her body swiftly in order to avoid them in a very laid back, but extremely effective style. With every unsuccessful punch, elbow, and kick, Yang continues moving forward as her last three blows bring her to a knee, where she attempts a roundhouse kick, allowing Neo to deliver a spinning hook kick, knocking Yang to the ground. 

Blake reacted by turning Gambol Shroud into katana form and released a flurry of slashes and stabs, but Neo quickly evaded them and on Blake's last strike she left herself slightly overextended which Neo exploited by gripping her arm and delivering several harsh kicks to Blake's stomach.

Yang got up and tried to intervene with a powerful punch to Neo's head, but Neo instead pulled Blake toward her and caused Yang to hit Blake in the head instead, sending the Faunus into the train wall, completely knocking the wind out of her.

"Blake!" Yang cried and at the same time Neo gave a silent giggle.

This caused Yang to give an angry cry as she charged Neo with another punch but Neo countered through a pull in redirection of force technique, she pulled Yang's arm in with her own left arm, and performed a well-executed axe kick to hit Yang on the chin, before Neo kicked Yang in the stomach with a perfect side kick. Neo then started pushing Yang back via her umbrella, now on the offensive.

Yang tried to counter her movements with Ember Celica but Neo was able to effortlessly push Yang back against a wall, until the latter shot a blast directly towards the former's feet. Neo, however, backflipped effortlessly, and landed on a metal container, and sat down to await Yang's next attack.

As Yang approached her, Neo smiled, taunting her, before Yang unleashed her next attack. Neo countered, and began kicking Yang back. Yang unleashed another blast from Ember, which Neo blocked.

Blake got back up and joined in and a hand to hand spar began, Yang then grabbed Neo's foot, and pulled her closer to throw her, only for Neo to counter, grappling Yang and using her momentum to throw her into the ceiling, knocking her unconscious. Neo then unleashed a flurry of blows that Blake struggled to counter before Neo cornered her at a wall and managed to pin Blake to it by the throat.

Blake watched in horror as Neo gave a sadistic smile and a hidden blade immerged from her umbrella.

Neo brought it right to Blake's throat and then to the confusion of everyone the blade _bent._

And it wasn't just the blade, the whole umbrella suddenly started crumbling into a metal ball, Neo let go of Blake and turned around and Blake saw what the cause of it was.

It was Pyrrha, clearly barely conscious, crushing the umbrella using her semblance.

Neo stalked over to Pyrrha, her face furious but before she got even half way, Oobleck dropped in and Neo froze.

The good doctor didn't hesitate to deliver a blow to Neo but she somehow shattered into a thousand pieces.

"Is everyone alright?" He asked. 

"Peachy." Blake muttered as she walked over to Pyrrha who had again fallen unconscious. 

Yang also woke up with a groan. "What happened?"

"Pyrrha saved me, crushed the umbrella." Blake said shortly as Yang picked up Pyrrha again. "Doctor, where's Ruby?"

"Your team leader is finishing up the remainder of the enemy with Zwei." Oobleck replied.

Blake nodded. "Right then lets go and stop Torchwick."

But to her surprise Oobleck shook his head a negative. "I'm sorry, but it's too late for that, all we can do now is brace ourselves for collision."

Blake and Yang's eyes widened as they understood what he meant. 

Not moments later the train hit it's target and the world exploded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Well not much to say in terms of actual notes other than Nora being chased by the Meta was influenced by my own experiences in Alien Isolation, one of the best horror games ever. I'd also like to give credit to the RWBY wiki for help with the Neo vs Yang and Blake fight.
> 
> As always I'd like to thank everyone for reading and give extra thanks to those that comment/review, you guys and gals are all excellent.
> 
> Next time everything come to a head and plotlines converge. There'll be Grimm, the Meta and Caboose! I guess you could say that it'll be the Maine event. But till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	27. The Maine Event

Out of all the explosions Church had ever suffered, he'd rank the train explosion at around 3rd, above his first death by Shelia, but below his robot body exploding.

Although the fact that he could rank all of the explosions he'd ever suffered once again proved that his life plain sucked.

With the usual amount of grumbling Church got himself up, thankful that due to lacking a proper body he couldn't feel any pain.

He could see the others get up around him as well, an alarm was sounding and all the civilian's were looking anxiously at the wreck.

Not a moment later a snake type Grimm burst from the ground followed by a swarm of others.

"Son of a bitch." Church swore.

And then he spotted something equally as important.

Nora Valkyrie groaning in pain on the ground with the banged up form of Tex beside her.

Without thinking, Church started to run over but this eagerness died within a few steps as he heard an inhuman growl.

But it wasn't the Grimm, instead it was the scariest mute in the fucking galaxy. 

The Meta advanced slowly towards Tex and Church panicked.

As such he came up with an appropriately dumb plan.

"Hey Meta!" Church called out. "Over here!"

The Meta turned slowly to face Church and the cobalt blue ghost suddenly realised that it may not have been the smartest of ideas to call the Meta.

In less than a second the Meta went from a slow walk to a roaring charge towards Church.

In response Church did the riskiest thing he'd ever done. 

"Caboose help me!"

There was no immediate response as the Meta grew closer, and closer, and closer....

Then at the last possible moment a blue blur came over Church's head and the Meta was forced several meters back.

An inhuman growl emerged from the Meta as they took out the brute shot, while Ruby-and-Caboose unleashed Crescent Rose into scythe form.

It was the strangest Mexican stand off in the history of Remnant, well at least as far a Church knew.

In one corner was the Meta, the galaxies scariest mute, equipped with the brute shot and most likely several freelancer enhancements. 

In the other was Ruby Rose, huntress in training that was also combined with Caboose giving her insane levels of pure strength.

the stare down lasted only a moment before Ruby-and-Caboose charged in, swinging the scythe in a wild fashion, lacking most of the skill and grace Ruby usually had.

But the Meta blocked the blade with the one on his brute shot, and redirected it to the ground, causing the scythe to get stuck firmly in it. 

The Meta then fired off a grenade, but Ruby dodged it and gave a mighty headbutt to the Meta, causing him to stumble back.

Ruby-and-Caboose then tried to pull Crescent Rose out of the ground, but overestimated just how much strength would be needed. As a result, rather than pulling the scythe safely out of the ground, they incidentally ripped off the handle instead, utterly destroying Ruby's 'baby.'

Church winced. This would _not_ be a fun conversation when everything was over.

The effect was also immediate as even combined with Caboose there was an expression of pure angry and outrage on Ruby's face, and being the emotionally healthy person she was, she and Caboose decided to take it out on the nearest person, which thankfully was still the Meta.

Using the broken pole, they charged at the Meta, giving powerful swings, and while the Meta blocked the first two, the same could not be said for the third which impacted his arm, Ruby-and-Caboose used this momentum to swing down and force the Brute Shot from the Meta's grasp. Then in one fluid motion, they lifted up the Brute Shot in one hand and crushed it until it was inoperable, and then throwing it away.

Ruby-and-Caboose then dropped the pole and cracked their knuckles, the Meta did much the same and charged for a battle of fists.

Now the _real_ fight had begun.

* * *

After a few minutes Tex's Hud finally came back online. 

It was annoying trying to bypass all of the little systems and fail safes to divert power to it, but Tex _needed_ information.

However, the only things she learned was that the sky was a lot smokier than usual and that people were screaming, both most likely because of the bomb.

Through sheer force of will, Tex managed to use her remaining arm to force herself upright, only to find Grimm terrorising the city while some girl fought the Meta.

Well, fuck.

Next to Tex on the ground, Nora finally stirred and got up.

"Are you two alright?" 

Tex turned to see a ginger girl in a green dress rushing over to help up Nora.

"Penny?" Nora asked groggily. "What happened?"

"It would seem that somehow an explosion has caused Grimm to swarm into the city." Penny explained seriously. "Team RPBY is already at the scene, can you stand?"

Nora nodded as Penny picked helped her up. 

"I can help." Nora stated as she gripped Magnhild. Nora then glanced at the girl fighting the Meta. "Looks like Ruby's holding off the Meta, will you be alright Tex?" 

Wait, Ruby? As in Qrow's niece? Tex watched as Ruby delivered a thunderous punch right to the Meta's head. Well shit.

"Peachy kid." Tex gave a thumbs up. 

Nora then went off to join her friends in battling Grimm.

"Holy shit, Tex are you alright?" Church cried as he stumbled into view and all thoughts about leaving the fight to someone else left Tex's mind. 

"Dandy." Tex drawled sarcastically. 

It was at that point Sarge and agent fucking Washington walked into view.

"Is that you rookie? Thought I'd never see you again." Tex admitted.

"It's been a long time since I've been called rookie." Wash said before he went to business. "But reunions can come later, is that the Meta?"

"With Sigma and a bunch of enhancements to boot." Tex confirmed.

"Shit." Wash swore. "Ruby and Caboose won't be able to hold him off forever."

"Wait, Caboose?"

"He's combined with Ruby, we'll explain later, also me, Sarge, Caboose and Church are all actual ghosts, again we'll explain later."

Well that was some new information.

"I could help, I am combat ready." Penny claimed, but Wash shook his head.

"No, the Meta is well above your skill level. You should focus on the Grimm"

"What about Lopez?" Sarge asked as the robot in question wondered into view.

It wasn't the original Lopez obviously (it was too clean and new looking) but it was most likely a Sarge creation.

_"Que esta pasando? ¿Están todos bien?"_

[What is going on? Is everyone alright?]

Yep. Defiantly a Sarge creation.

If Tex had a mouth, she'd be grinning.

"What? No! Lopez doesn't have any- wait, Tex what are you doing?" 

Her body went lax as Lopez's went stiff. 

After all Church wasn't the _only_ one who could possess people.

* * *

The Meta blocked a punch and delivered a headbutt to the annoying obstacle in the way of their goal. 

Ruby Rose was not matching the profile they had for her from Beacon. Instead she was far stronger and more competent at hand to hand combat than what was reported.

But the discrepancies mattered little to the Meta, indeed Beta herself was now of secondary importance.

The Alpha was within their grasp. He was so very, very close but it seemed that Rose was hell bent on being a thorn in their side.

The Meta shot a quick punch out, catching Ruby in the face, causing her to cringe at the attack, but otherwise recovered quickly, grabbing the Meta's head and bringing it to her knee with tremendous force, draining a good portion of the Meta's aura.

But the Meta then counter attacked by sending out a kick to the left of Ruby, followed immediately by using the other leg to sweep her off her feet. They then pinned her to the ground and wrapped their hands around their throat and squeezed.

Ruby tried to struggle and used her strange strength to get the Meta's hands off her throat and a brief struggle ensued. 

Then their was a sharp whistle which caused the Meta to look up....

…Only for them to be hit by something which sent them flying back.

A moment later they got back on their feet and saw a brown robot helping Rose to her feet.

Who was this new contender? 

"Buenos días cockbite." 

It seems agent Texas has re-entered the fray.

The Meta cracked their knuckles and charged, but as they got closer Tex dodged under him and Ruby blocked the Meta, Tex then delivered a kick to their back.

The Meta turned around to punch Tex, but the freelancer dodged back and Ruby took the advantage to grab the Meta's arms and hold them behind them and Tex delivered a flurry of punches to the Meta's stomach.

Thinking fast the Meta activated the bubble shield, forcing the duo away from the Meta, they then attacked Tex, grabbing her and smashing her of their knee, damaging the robotics, but then they were hit by a blue blur.

Then again.

And again.

The blur attempted to pull the hit and run a fourth time, but the Meta activated the speed booster to match Ruby's speed and put agent Maine's full strength behind it, and at the same time Ruby went for another punch with her full strength behind it.

The result was the two fists meeting in spectacular fashion, causing a shockwave that broke the ground and sent both combatants flying back.

The Meta's Aura had finally broken and they could see that Rose's had as well.

But rather unfortunately the Grimm had all been slain and the Meta found themselves faced with several huntsmen backed by dozens of Atlesian Knight-200s.

Neither would be much of a problem on their own, but together.....

They had neither the power reserves or Aura left to fight them off.

The Meta growled as they realised that the Alpha would have to wait another day.

And so they activated the time distortion and fled.

Alternative measures would be needed.

* * *

At the Meta's disappearance several things happened.

Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna would check up on Pyrrha and bring her to the medics that started to arrive on scene.

Nora Valkyrie would get the attention of the medics and lead them to extract the rest of her team and Qrow.

Ruby Rose would shrink back to her usual size, become red again and collapse exhaustedly, only for Tex to bring her sleeping form to the medics as well.

In his office Ozpin would begin to start on damage control and collect footage that he could review later.

But miles away, in the desolate cold of Mantle, the final chess pieces would come into play.

* * *

"But to tell you the truth, I don't actually think he said it." Doyle admitted with a sad melancholic smile.

So this would be his end, still he had faith that Vanessa would lead them to victory.

He had faith.

Then the reactor exploded and the world went white.....

....and stayed that way.

Doyle blinked and realised that he could still feel his everything, and that he was on the ground.

Confusedly, he picked himself up off the ground to find himself on a snowy mountain.

Was this the afterlife? If so heaven was very cold.

And windy, very, very windy.

Doyle stood there in contemplation for a few minutes, but then he heard a voice.

"Hey, you alive over there?"

Doyle turned around to see a man approaching him in the same type of armour that agent Washington and the others wore, only this time it was tan with a silver trim.

"Well, in the spirit of honesty, I'm not entirely sure." Doyle said back.

"How so?"

"Well, I died." 

"Interesting." But it was not the soldier that said it, rather the glowing artificial intelligence on his shoulder did.

"You have an A.I?" Doyle inquired curiously, perhaps it was related to Epsilon.

The man straightened and shook his head.

"Where are my manners? I'm York, and this is Delta." He made gestures at the appropriate persons as he made his introductions.

"Ah, well I am general Donald Doyle, at your service." He held out his hand.

York took it and shook it. "Pleased to meet you."

"So are you.......?" Doyle awkwardly asked. 

"Dead?" York rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, I've been wondering about that myself."

Delta interjected. "You flatlined and I was destroyed in an E.M.P." 

"And I was disintegrated in an atomic explosion." Doyle put forward.

"Well, that's quite the way to go." York paused. "Anyway, we should all be dead, but we actually aren't according to Delta there's electronic signatures over that way." York pointed down the mountain. "We were going to see what's what when Dee detected your armour."

"Well, in that case may I join you?" Doyle asked.

"Sure thing." York said easily. "Any objections Dee?" 

"None."

York clapped his hands. "Great, lets get on our merry way and find out where the hell we are."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Well, to be honest this chapter was meant to come out last week, but then my computer committed die. as a result after it was fixed I needed to rewrite the ENTIRE FUCKING CHAPTER.
> 
> Needless to say I was filled with rage.
> 
> Not much to say except welcome to York, Delta and Doyle in the cold plains of Mantle. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone for reading, with extra thanks to does that comment/review, you dudes are awesome.
> 
> Next time the gang recovers in the hospital, ten points for whoever guesses the title of that chapter. But till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	28. Recovery One

As a general rule Wash had always hated hospitals.

As David, he hated them because of the cost, to hear his parents argue over bills and to feel terrible because of it.

During freelancer, he hated them because hospitals meant that something had gone wrong with the mission, to see his friends in pain always broke his heart.

After Epsilon, he hated them because of the rush of memories they would bring, a reminder of the worst moments of his life.

And finally on Chorus he hated them because it meant that his friends had been seriously injured.

Wash was proud to say that his hatred of hospital had carried over to Remnant as well.

"How long is this going to take?" Church asked grumpily. "I mean seriously, 'only a few hours' she said, 'we'll catch up at the hospital' she said."

"Yes, we get it. Tex isn't here." Wash cut him off.

"No need to keep bitching and moaning about it." Sarge added.

"I wasn't bitching and moaning." Church claimed. "Hey Caboose, was I bitching and moaning?"

"Of course not, your Church!" Caboose said enthusiastically. 

Church nodded in a vindicated fashion. "Exactly I'm-"

Caboose cut in.

"You were _groaning_." Caboose said wisely. "There's a difference."

"I hate you." 

"Good to see somethings really do never change."

Everyone turned to see Tex in the hallway, arms crossed and looking like absolute crap.

She'd been away repairing her previous body so that she wouldn't be stuck speaking Spanish, but while she clearly got it working, she could have used help with the cosmetic aspect of it.

"Tex! It's uh, good to see you." Church said awkwardly. "Your looking..."

"Like crap?" Tex finished for him.

"....Yeah."

"You know, it reminds me of that time Carolina tried to teach Jensen how to drive." Wash recalled the memory.

Sarge winced. "That was a blood bath."

"Wait Carolina? She's dead! I watched her die." Tex objected.

"Turns out she survived, grappled onto the cliff before falling and went into hiding." Wash explained, remembering his own reaction to Carolina showing up all those years ago.

"Well shit, York would have liked to hear that if he wasn't...." Tex trailed off awkwardly.

"Yeah...." 

They lapsed into an awkward silence that Caboose broke.

"Well I think that it is very good to see you agent Texas." Caboose said cheerfully.

Tex snorted. "Yeah good to see you too Caboose."

"It is kinda nostalgic, seeing you again. Reminds me of the olden days, just me and a couple of idiots in a box canyon." Sarge reminisced. 

"Best years of my life." Tex said sarcastically.

"Well hopefully your time in Remnant will be better." Wash said.

"Speaking of, how is everyone?" Tex asked.

"As good as they could be considering the circumstances." Wash answered before elaborating. "Pyrrha got off the worst, she's still in surgery but it should be over soon. I also over heard that Ironwood is personally paying for all the hospital bills and a new leg for her. Weiss also was in surgery for her shoulder not to long ago, but she's out now and resting. Ruby, Nora, and the rest are all just resting and waiting for check ups."

"What about Qrow?"

"Oh, he's been treated for broken ribs, but he's expected to make a full recovery, as such he's currently resting."

"That's good." Tex said.

"Well want to go and see if anyone's still awake?" Wash asked.

"Might as well."

With that they entered the hospital room where everyone was, although the only person that was still awake was Ruby, at the end of the row of beds, messing with the remote that made the bed go up and down.

"Still awake kid?" Church asked.

"Oh! Hey guys." Ruby greeted them. "Yeah, I'm still awake it's cause I'm not-" She yawned. "Tired."

"I can tell." Wash said with a amused, but fond smile on his face.

"How you feeling soldier?" Sarge asked.

"I feel fine, although I can't really remember when I was combined with Caboose, the memories are... fuzzy."

"That's probably due to Caboose's... _unique_ mental state." Wash explained.

"Because he's an idiot." Church said.

"Basically." Wash agreed.

Tex moved forward and held out her hand. "So, your Ruby then? It's great to meet you kid."

Ruby flinched back, and her eyes went a little wide.

"You alright kid?" Tex asked, her voice concerned.

"Fine, fine." Ruby said, slightly panicked before she calmed down. "I'm fine."

"We'll explain later." Wash told Tex.

Tex nodded along. "Right, well it's good to see you've been taking care of these idiots while I've been gone."

Ruby blushed. "Well, I did my best." She said shyly.

"And hey, you weren't half bad in the fight." Tex continued on.

Ruby's blush got deeper. "Thanks, I'm like even better with Crescent Rose, which is my baby."

"Crescent Rose is the name of the scythe." Wash elaborated as Ruby's eyes widened.

"Wait, where is she!?" Ruby demanded. "Was she just left in the street?"

"No, no, no, no." Wash denied. "Penny collected the remains and brought them to your room."

"Ah, that's good." Ruby relaxed in her hospital bed. Then she got a strange look on her face. "Wait, _remains_?"

"You don't remember?" Sarge asked. 

"No, like I said, it's all really fuzzy." Ruby got an intense look on her face. "What do you mean by _remains_?"

"Well....."

* * *

Ozpin was standing on his balcony contemplating events when he heard a sound.

It almost sounded like miss Rose yelling out a particularly melodramatic and loud "Nooooo!" But Ozpin dismissed it, he was literally miles away from the hospital and at this point the silver eyed girl was most likely resting after her latest display of power.

Indeed todays events had proved most unexpected. 

Ozpin had expected Salem's forces to make a move of course, but releasing Grimm into the city....

It was clearly a test of Vale's strength, a test of Beacon's strength, but he was a a loss as to what the end goal could be.

Further mysteries had also arisen.

The mysterious agent Tex and her nemesis known only as the Meta, who seemingly had multiple semblances.

Creating bubble shields, moving at incredible speeds, seemingly teleporting. No one man could have that many semblances.

But that did not stop Ruby from displaying a new ability, insane strength at the cost of mental prowess.

But far worse than the mysteries were the injuries.

Qrow had been beaten down by the Meta, resulting in several injuries that would render him out of action for at least two weeks. Wiess had to get surgery to repair her shoulder, including the removal of several fragments from Myrtenaster which had been damaged severally. He could almost hear Jacques ranting when he got round to informing him.

But worst of all was Pyrrha, the loss of her leg was absolutely tragic and would impact the young huntress for many years to come. And that wasn't even mentioning how she'd nearly died of blood loss multiple times. But fortunately the doctors had assured him the she would survive.

And the issues didn't stop there. PTSD, hospital bills and more had the potential to tower over his students.

Ozpin turned around at the sound of his office door opening and saw James enter.

"Ozpin."

"James." Ozpin nodded. "Have you read the reports?"

Ironwood nodded.

"And?"

"Both teams did admirably considering the circumstances." James said. "But the circumstances themselves are unforgivable. Neither team should have had to face those enemies."

"I will admit that neither team should have been facing those enemies, but they were rather unexpected, particularly this 'Meta' figure." Ozpin said.

"It's unacceptable, how is it that no one in our network has even hear of this 'Meta' or the mercenary 'Felix' it seems that they just appeared one day and that's it."

Ozpin hummed. "I have a few theories about it, but it's only speculation with no proof."

"And this Tex character...." Ironwood continued. "Has Qrow given a full report?"

"Not yet, he's still in hospital at the moment." Ozpin and Ironwood sat down at the desk as Ozpin spoke. "He's expected to make a full recovery by the end of the week and for tonight at least he has the company of miss Rose and the other students."

James nodded. "Speaking of which, I'd like to inform you that due to outstanding service, the Atlas military will be paying for all hospital bills and I will personally be helping with the construction for a new leg for miss Nikos."

"Very kind of you James."

"They deserve it."

"In a similar vein, I will personally be providing counselling and therapy for my students should they need it." Ozpin informed James. After all, he had extensive experience of the subject in several of his previous lives.

James sighed. "Right, I've go some calls to make."

"Of course, I also need to contact the parents of my students about their child's condition. Including Jacques and Taiyang." He said, voice unenthusiastic at the prospect.

James winced. "Of course, good luck with that and I'll see you later."

They shook hands and Ironwood left. As he did so Ozpin got a notification on his scroll. Opening it, he saw that the download for the data on his listening devices was done.

He always kept several around Beacon as insurance and to keep an eye on certain teams.

He clicked on the one for team RPBY's room and fast forwarded it to when the 'intervention' for miss Rose's mental state would have taken place.

He hoped that there might be some answers awaiting for him.

 _"This is an intervention."_ Yang's voice said clearly.

* * *

_"-clearly I need to get back as soon as possible."_ The voice of Church rang out from the scroll when Tex arrived back into the hospital the following morning. Only it wasn't Church who was currently standing next to her.

Tex watched amused as Qrow looked dead inside as the person on the other end kept on talking and talking.

But then there was a quite ding! And Qrow looked relived. 

"Thank dust the battery died." Qrow said.

"Who was that?" Tex asked curiously.

"That was Tai, Ruby and Yang's father. Oz told him about what happened and he called me at four in the morning." Qrow explained as Tex looked at the clock hat read: 10:12 A.M.

"Hey everyone, just level with me. I don't sound like that right?" Church asked the room.

There was an uncomfortable silence as Church looked around for an answer but everyone just looked away, not daring to look him in the eyes. 

Church slumped back. "Great, I sound like a fucking dork."

Tex chose to ignore that and Church in general.

"So how's things been then? Recovering from that ass kicking well enough I hope."

Qrow snorted. "If I remember correctly, YOU were the one that was chopped in half."

"But I got the last laugh when I kicked the Meta's ass." Tex countered. 

"Who's the Meta?" 

Tex turned around to see all of the kids standing there. Ruby, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Ren and a girl wearing a black bow on her head.

"That's the name of the guy I was fighting." Tex told them.

"He was the one that hurt Qrow and Weiss right?" Yang asked.

"Yep." Ren nodded. "But fortunately Weiss will be out of the hospital by the end of the week."

"What about the other one.... Pyro wasn't it?" 

"Pyrrha." Ren corrected Tex. "She's out of surgery right now and rest, but she can't have visitors yet."

"Yeah and that's us getting discharged now." Nora chipped in.

"Great to hear." Qrow said. "I'll be out in a day or two, they just want to make sure there's no complications, and then I need to take it easy for a week or so."

"Whoopy doo, everyone's recovering." Tex fake cheered.

"Thank god Doc isn't here." Sarge said. "Otherwise no one would be getting better."

* * *

They met again late at night on a discreate airfield, Ghira with his wife and most trusted of guards, Locus only with his weapons and the armour on his back.

But Locus had a lot on his mind. Earlier that evening news had arrived from Vale of an attack from within the city. 

Some footage had come with that story, but most of it was clearly doctored and edited, yet in one frame the visage of agent Maine, the Meta himself was clearly visible.

Everything Locus knew about the freelancer pointed towards him being a major threat to the people of this world, so Locus knew what had to be done.

He had his first target.

"I'm assuming that you saw the footage?" Ghira asked, to which Locus only nodded.

"And?"

"The individual in the footage is known as the Meta, a very dangerous individual with powerful technology." Locus said at length, making sure he only told Ghira what he needed to know.

"Is he a threat?"

"Yes." Locus said immediately.

"Then you know what you need to do, Find and take care of him, and anyone else from your world." Ghira said.

"Do you have the equipment I requested?" Locus asked.

Ghira gestured broadly to the aircraft that was beside him. "This is a Manta, acquired from the Atlas military by my friends in the White Fang, the equipment and funds you requested are on board."

Locus gave a small nod of thanks.

But as he did so, Ghira's scroll went off, the chieftain picked it up and frowned.

"What is it?" Kali asked. 

"Headmaster Ozpin. Why would he be contacting us?" Ghira shook his head. "No matter, I'll deal with this." Ghira then looked Locus straight in the eyes/helmet. "We never met."

With that he departed, his wife and guard with him, leaving Locus alone as he considered what to do next.

Logically it would make sense to track down the Meta, but at the moment his whereabouts were again unknown, furthermore the use of his enhancements in the small amount of footage Locus had seen suggest that he had the use of at least one A.I.

No, Locus needed allies before he could hunt him.

Locus then brought up the map of energy readings on his HUD. 

Two in Atlas, One in Vacuo and Mistral each and three on an island called Patch.

After much deliberation Locus decided on Atlas as a starting point, even if both people there would prove threats, Atlas would provide Locus an ideal place for acquiring Dust and weapons.

So, Locus got on the airship and began the pre-flight air checks.

He was headed to Atlas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Woo! That was fun to write. Not much to say in terms of notes except that all recovery times and medical stuff were taken from various health websites and the NHS website.
> 
> As always I'd like to thank everyone for reading, with extra thanks to those that comment/review, you guys are the best.
> 
> Next time Doyle and York get in some bonding time. While Blake has an (incredibly awkward) reunion with her parents while Tai and Jacques display their own parenting styles. But till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	29. Reunions

After a couple of miles it became apparent that they weren't going to be reaching civilisation any time soon.

As such York and Doyle both agreed to settle in a nearby cave for the night, after they'd gotten a fire going it was just a matter of passing time.

Fortunately, York was a people person, he'd made plenty of friends in freelancer before the project fell apart around him.

"So Doyle, what are you the general of?" York asked as an icebreaker.

"The federal army of Chorus." Doyle said after a moment. "Although I don't expect you've heard of them, we've been isolated from the galaxy at large for quite some time."

It was at this point that Dee appeared. 

"My data banks register Chorus as an colony that many have described as 'far flung' however, no communications have been sent from the planet in a long time." Dee said.

"That's not surprising, we've been in a civil war for years until recently." Doyle explained with a shake of his head.

"Until recently?" York pressed for more information.

"Well recently there's been something of a truce, largely thanks to the efforts of the reds and blues."

A thought popped into York's head. 

"Where they simtroopers or something?" York asked casually.

Doyle then snapped his fingers. "I've got it! I know where I've heard your name before, you were an operative for project freelancer weren't you?"

"That's not exactly public knowledge." York said. "And it's ex-operative these days."

"Of course, agent Washington mentioned as much when we discussed the subject." Doyle said as York's mouth hit the bottom of his helmet.

"You _know_ Wash?" 

"Of course, he was the leader of blue team and is one of my closest friends if I do say so myself." Doyle elaborated.

York gave a small chuckle at the thought of Wash leading a group of sims, the smile on his face then turned into a worried frown. Good lord, it had been a _long_ time since he'd seen Wash.

"Is he... is he doing okay?"

"I hope so, fortunately Carolina is there to help him."

"Good, good...." York nodded absently until his brain caught up with what had been said.

"Hey Doyle, did you just say Carolina? As in _agent_ Carolina?"

"Yes, she was also a freelancer I believe, she actually mentioned you're name a few times." Doyle shifted. "I'm assuming you knew each other?"

"You could say that." York said as his mind raced with the possibilities. In a flash York had Doyle pinned to the cave wall.

"You've seen Carolina? She's ALIVE? Has she talked about me much? Is she doing well? Why didn't she tell me that she was alive? What is she-"

"York, I would recommend releasing the general, analysis indicates that he is about to engage in vasovagal syncope."

York stopped to look at Delta.

"He is about to faint."

"Yes." Doyle confirmed weakly before he fainted.

"How long before he wakes up Dee?"

"Unknown."

York picked up Doyle and moved him into a more comfortable position before quietly cursing at his own hastiness and aggressive enthusiasm.

"Son of a bitch."

* * *

"And then Tucker was upset, so we decided to remake the entire movie." Church told Tex.

"So you, the rest of blue team and the reds all decided to act of the entirety of Reservoir Dogs." Tex snorted. "I wish I'd been there to see that train wreck."

"I'd argue, but yeah it was a train wreck." Church chuckled with what totally wasn't fondness.

"Sounds like you idiots were doing fine then, without me." Tex said. 

"I mean sure it was uh mostly peaceful, but we did miss you." Church said with some actual sincerity in his voice.

After a moments silence, Tex spoke. "Church-"

But as Tex spoke, the door of the closet that they were chatting in flew open, and Blake entered clearly out of breath. The young Faunus then quickly closed and locked the door before noticing that Tex was also in the closet.

"Hey." Blake said awkwardly. 

"Hey." Tex replied back. "You okay kid?"

"Fine, fine." Blake said somewhat absently as she caught her breath. "Why are you in a closet?"

"Privacy." Tex answered without missing a beat. And yeah that was true, Church suggested the closet himself so that they could talk without someone seeing Tex and thinking she was crazy.

"Oh." 

"And what about you kid, what's got you running to hide in here like Donut?" Tex asked.

"You know I'd argue that wearing pink armour and spouting off innuendos every five seconds doesn't really count as hiding." Church put in his two cents.

But of course being unable to see him, Blake ignored Church's remarks. "It's nothing really, just... personal issues."

"Such as?" Tex pressed.

Blake sighed. "Well, I guess you'll just hear it latter anyway, it's my parents, their here in Beacon looking for me."

"They aren't abusive or anything are they?"

"No ,no, no." Blake denied. "I love them, their fantastic parents and people, it's just..." She sighed. "We had a massive argument last time we saw each other, more specifically I argued against them when they just wanted the best for me. I was just too blind to see it."

It was at this point that Church was hit by a feeling, a very strange parental feeling, which was pretty odd since he had no children.

Then he was hit by a flash of a memory, one of a girl that looked like Pyrrha only a lot older, she was crying after a fight with... someone. An incredibly rare event. Church, ~~ThE aLPhA~~ , wanted to help, but someone wouldn't let him.

The flash went away as quickly as it came and Church was left with a feeling of guilt that he really didn't like.

"Let me, talk to her." Church said to Tex.

"Church, that's a terrible idea." Tex whispered back while Blake started to monologue about all her failings and how 'it was probably for the best she never saw her parents again.'

"Hey, when have I ever had a bad idea?" Church asked rhetorically. 

Tex then muted herself and doubled over with laughter, which was thankfully unnoticed by Blake.

After a few minutes she straightened up. "Yeah, I'm not even going to start on what's wrong with that statement."

"Anyway, I think I could help here." Church said. "It's like a feeling, like a memory that's not quite there." 

Then to Church's eternal surprise, Tex left the robot body without another word.

Not one to miss an opportunity like this Church immediately possessed the robot body.

"Hey kid, shut up for a second would ya?"

Blake stopped talking and looked shocked. "Your voice-"

"Yeah, yeah, sounds different I know." Church waved away the concern.

"But that's not-"

"The point is, you _need_ to see your parents." 

"Weren't you listening to a word I said? I can't face them." Blake said.

"Why not? What's the worst thing that can happen?" Church countered. 

"They might, we might..." Blake trailed off, looking like a depressed puppy, which was ironic considering she was part cat.

"Fight, argue and hear that they don't love you." Church finished for her. "Trust me kid, I know the feeling." Oh boy did he know that feeling, when he was a kid much the same had happened with me and my parents."

Church could remember it so clearly, at least he thinks he could, half formed memories that existed in his mind told him as much.

_"You'll never amount to anything Leonard!" His father yelled, he ran away tears streaming down his face-_

Church snapped out of that memory hard.

"What happened, with your parents?" Blake asked, her arms crossed as she did so.

"We had an argument, I ran away and never saw them again." Church said simply. "But it could be different for you." 

"But how? I called them such _terrible_ things." 

"Look, I'm not saying you _have_ to talk to them. I'm not, what I am saying is that you can." Church said. "I never got to see my parents again, to find out if things could have been better, you have that chance, and if I were you I'd take it."

They all stood there in silent contemplation before Blake nodded.

"Alright... I'll talk to them." Blake said quietly.

"Really? That's great!" Church said with the clap of his hands.

"Okay, I can do this." Blake told herself with resolve and as she left she said one last thing. "And... thanks."

As soon as Blake had left Church left the robot body, but to his surprise Tex didn't immediately go for it. 

"Hey, Church what you said about your parents.... do you really remember it that way?" Tex asked him quietly.

"Yeah, I mean those are some of my strongest memories, why?"

"No reason." Tex said with unusual softness in her voice as she returned to her body. "Come on, lets catch up with the others."

"Right behind you."

* * *

After all the things that happened to prove it, Weiss had known that her father was a pretty terrible father. But this... this just took the cake.

In her hands Weiss held a card.

It was a rather nice card all things considered, and the contents of the card were perfectly alright, if more than a tad clinical.

But that was precisely the problem, the damned card was the only word she'd gotten from her father, nothing else. 

Sure Weiss wasn't thinking that he'd come done all the way from Atlas to visit her, but she'd been hoping for at least a call, Weiss had been in hospital for shoulder surgery. 

But no, what she got was a stupid card.

And in all honesty, it was quite insulting.

Now normally Weiss wouldn't be feel quite so bitter about this, but unfortunately she was stuck watching a different scene in front of her.

"And I was so worried, I mean couldn't either of you called?"

"Again, we couldn't exactly call you to help in the middle of a battle, especially since you were half a continent away." 

Weiss watched as Yang and Ruby talked with their dad, Taiyang she believed his name was, about the battle. And why was she being forced to watch this reunion? Because they had decided to do it in the hospital with Qrow, who Weiss now learned was Ruby's uncle, and Weiss had been there to thank the huntsmen for helping her team.

"Yeah, but still. I could have helped."

"Don't worry Ch- dad, we're fine." Ruby said reassuringly. 

"Fine!? You and Yang were in hospital and Qrow's still here!" Taiyang frantically gestured as if to make a point.

"Technically I was on a different mission." Qrow pipped up.

"Yes, and for the record I would like to thank you for protecting my team." Weiss told him. 

"Your welcome kid, its all apart of the job, besides I've had worse."

"Yeah, like that makes it better." 

"Hey, remember that time in Vacuo when Summer dared me to try and ride that sandworm Grimm?" Qrow put forward.

Taiyang snorted in remembrance. "How could I forget with the amount of complaining you did after? And don't try to distract me, I have a point to be making and that point is-"

"That we're all fine and you worry to much?" Yang suggested.

Taiyang sighed. "Well, yeah I worry."

Weiss sighed, she wished that she had a father who worried about her more than profits.

"Don't worry dad, we're fine, we've got a good team." Ruby told him with a smile.

"Oh yeah, and does this team include a girlfriend?" Tai said with a teasing smile.

Ruby's face went as red as her name suggested. 

"Daaaaddddd." 

"Don't worry, I just want to meet her."

"Me too, once I'm outta here." Qrow pipped up.

"Well you'll have to wait, she's catching up with her family." Ruby said.

"What about for now we all just go for ice cream? You too, Weiss isn't it? Your free to come along."

Weiss shook her head. "I wouldn't mean to impose, I'm not even apart of their team."

"Yeah, but your a friend of Ruby and Yang's." He grinned conspiratorially. "That means you can give me the inside scoop."

"Yeah, come on Weiss it'll be fun." Ruby said.

After a moments hesitation Weiss gave her answer. 

"Alright, lead on then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> First off we have Doyle and York getting to know each other, and of course as soon as Doyle's back on his feet York will be getting the inside scoop on how Carolina and Wash have been doing.
> 
> Then a wee scene of Church giving Blake some advice which is influenced by my head cannon that the Director had a shitty childhood. 
> 
> And then Taiyang makes his appearance, it will not be his last.
> 
> As always thanks everyone for reading and extra thanks to those that comment/review, you're all awesome.
> 
> Next time, Pyrrha gets some visitors as she recovers and Ozpin has a chat with Ruby. But till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	30. Consequences

"Excuse me, miss Nikos, there's some visitors here to see you, would you like us to let them in?"

Pyrrha didn't look at the nurse, but gave a silent nod of approval.

It was better than speaking, at this point her voice was very much hoarse and she didn't feel much like speaking.

A few moments later, she heard steps, footsteps.

"Pyrrha?" 

She flinched back from the unfortunately familiar voice as a memory rushed to the forefront of her mind-

_"Now that is a lot of blood! Makes everything harder to see actually, so would you mind not bleeding for a bit? Thanks doll face." Felix moved the knife and Pyrrha barely stopped herself from screaming._

_"Now this is going to hurt, so please feel free to scream, it really helps with motivation."_

_He moved the knife and Pyrrha could feel the dark of unconsciousness begin to take her-_

"Pyrrha! Are you okay?"

She snapped back into reality to see Jaune's concerned face take up her vision. 

"Fine." Pyrrha lied tiredly. "Just... fine."

She tried to force a smile, but found she couldn't even force a half smile.

Jaune frowned but didn't call her out on the lie.

"So, how's the hospital been treating you, are the staff nice?" He asked instead.

"The hospitals fine, and yes the staff are lovely." Pyrrha replied somewhat flatly.

Jaune winced at the flat tone in her voice. "You don't sound too happy."

"I'm not."

"Do, you want to talk about it?" Jaune asked as he sat at the chair next to her. 

It was just the two of them at the moment, Ruby, Yang and Blake had all visited her earlier and Pyrrha had given them the same short blank answers to the questions they asked.

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence, Jaune not sure of what to say, and Pyrrha unwilling to properly start a conversation. 

It would be a while before another word would be spoken.

Pyrrha just rested there, her eyes fixed on the ceiling, thoughts swirling around in her brain like a slow mixture of soup.

But Pyrrha didn't mind so much, it was no fault of Jaune's really, but when she heard his voice memoires of _him,_ would come to the surface. 

Memories of that awful night would come to the forefront of Pyrrha's mind and make her want to scream, or cry or something.

But he was silent bless him, poor sweet Jaune.

But after two full hours of the oppressive yet comforting silence, Pyrrha decided to speak.

"I can feel it."

"What?" Jaune asked, clearly surprised that the silence had been broken.

"My leg." She clarified. "I can still feel my leg, the one I lost. It's feel like it's still there sometimes, like I can still use it, walk, run and train with it." Pyrrha gave a hallow laugh. "It's maddening."

"Pyrrha-" Jaune tried to interject, but she wasn't quite finished.

"They told me it's called phantom limbs and pain. But I don't really feel any pain just the limb, just the leg." Pyrrha rambled. "And, just can't look at, because if I look at it it's gone, but if I don't then it's still there because I can feel it, you know?"

"I'm sorry Pyrrha." Jaune said sincerely.

"Don't be, it's not your fault." Pyrrha replied softly.

"But hey at least general Ironwoods getting you a new leg."

"I heard." 

"It's supposed to be state of the art, best in Atlas tech." Jaune said in an attempt to cheer her up.

"I know... but it won't be the same." 

"Pyrrha, I heard what happened from Ruby and the others, is it true that this Felix guy.... he sounds like me?" Jaune asked carefully.

"Yes." Pyrrha nodded almost robotically. "It's true, he sounds almost exactly like you." Then Pyrrha gave a half laugh. "Dear lord he used that against me you know, he used your voice to trick me, and trap me. What's the point of being the 'invincible' girl if I'm tricked by that?"

Then the tears came, first one then it was a waterfall of tears. "He hurt me, I could have died, and now nothing will be the same again."

Jaune then put Pyrrha into a big, comforting hug.

"Jaune? Everything is not fine."

* * *

Elsewhere, away in Beacon, Ruby Rose was taking stock of the situation.

The rush of events after the battle had finally cooled down and a bittersweet feeling was the concusses. 

On one hand, the bad guys had been beaten, Torchwick was in jail and whatever masterplan they had was in ruins, the Meta itself had been forced to retreat. But on the other hand, Pyrrha was hurt badly and had lost a leg, Qrow had been put in hospital, Felix was still out there and the White Fang could still be up to something.

And even outside that faithful mission, lots of things had changed.

Wash's mental breakdown inside her had hurt her mentally and she knew at heart that it would effect her for years to come.

She'd managed to start a relationship with Blake, even if they'd only had one date together.

Yang and everyone else had gotten really worried by Ruby's behaviour and had tried to stage an intervention for her, ending with Ruby spilling the beans about the blues and red, promising proof in the near future.

All in all, things were changing and Ruby had no idea what would happen next.

Still, if nothing else she had her friends and family to help her through it.

Right now Ruby was looking out into the city from Beacon, she'd ditched the guys to be alone with her thoughts. 

"It's a nice view."

Ruby didn't look away from it as Blake came over and sat down next to her on the bench, looking at the view of Vale from Beacon.

"It is." Ruby agreed.

It was a pretty good view, the evening sun was dipping behind the city which had silhouetted it in a spectacular fashion.

"So, how's things?" Blake asked.

"Good, good, just thinking."

"What about?"

"About everything that's happened recently, I was hoping to visit Pyrrha tomorrow, to see how she's doing."

"Would you mind if I tagged along?" Blake asked.

"Of course! I'm sure that Pyrrha would like the company." Ruby then remembered something. "Oh! How did things go with your family?" 

"Good, they went really good." Blake smiled wildly. "Better than I expected actually. Their staying here for a week or so before they have to head home."

Ruby nodded. "That's good."

"Yeah, hey I could take you to meet them if you'd like, they actually want to meet the whole team, but with Pyrrha out of action it would just be me you and Yang." Blake explained, twisting her hair with a finger as she did so. "And maybe afterwards we could go catch a movie or something."

Ruby smiled. "That sounds great. It'll be a nice change of pace from everything that's been happening."

"It will." Blake said as her hand found Ruby's and their fingers intertwined, they sat there watching the sunset.

After a while Blake asked a question.

"Do you ever wonder why we're here?" 

"It is one of life's great mysteries." Ruby replied. "But I don't think it matters, all that matters is what we do with our life, not why we're here."

"I agree." Blake said. "Come on, lets head inside, it's getting cold."

"You go ahead, I'd like to watch the sun set for a while longer." Ruby said.

"Of course." Blake said, and leaned over to give Ruby a kiss on the cheek. "See you in a few."

* * *

Felix winced as the doctor finished wrapping the bandages around him.

"Hey, be a bit more careful could you?" Felix snapped at him.

"Sorry sir." The medic apologised. " _She_ wanted to see you when we were finished."

"No rest for the wicked." Felix mused aloud as the medic left. Carefully he then put on his armour, even if it was still in a poor condition due to little red riding hood packing a bigger punch than expected. Still, at least he had fun with Carolina 2.0.

Armour fully on, he walked out of the tent they'd been keeping him in and walked across the field to the command centre.

Currently they were located in a field several dozen miles away from Vale and concealed from watching eyes by being just on the outskirts of a particularly thick forest.

It was a tightly run operation, but Felix could see several security errors as he walked from one end to the other, hell those were some errors that Locus would complain about but ultimately exploit if he wanted to infiltrate the place.

Felix reached the command tent and stepped inside, there was only one person there, a guy wearing a mask with deep red hair. Felix had seen him around before, but never bothered to learn the dudes name.

"So your finally here." The guy said.

"Yes, good to see that your little mask doesn't stop your vision." Felix said as he held out his hand. "Felix."

"Adam." He replied but didn't take Felix's hand. Rude.

"Well at least you have a normal name." Felix said before moving onto business. "So the boss lady wants to talk?"

Adam nodded and pressed a button on the table he was leaning on causing a hologram of Cinder to appear in the middle of the table.

"Cinder!" Felix greeted loudly. "How's you doing doll face?"

"Quite well." Cinder replied smoothly. "How about you? How are you recovering from your injuries?"

"Oh you know, as well as I can." Felix replied nonchalantly.

Ignoring the small talk, Adam went right to business.

"There are rumblings of discontent within the ranks after the disaster at Vale last week." He announced.

"And I'm assuming you silenced them." Cinder guessed.

"Of course." Adam confirmed. "But that doesn't change the fact that what happened last week was a mess."

"Don't you mean a trainwreck?" Felix said dryly. "Come on, sure some of our guys might have gotten their asses kicked, and sure it's earlier than planned, but we still achieved the main objective."

"Barely." Sneered Adam.

"Relax Adam, Felix is right about this, while there may have been _complications,_ the overall plan went swimmingly." Cinder said. 

"That may be so, but we cannot allow for many more mistakes. If there are, then my soldiers may get restless."

"Regardless, there is something I need you to look into Adam." Cinder moved her hand and a new image appeared. "I need you to find this individual."

Felix whistled as the image appeared, it seems that the unknown hostile that showed up during the battle was the freaking Meta.

"The unknown hostile from the battle." Adam frowned. "Why?"

"Because as far as any of my sources know, he doesn't exist." Cinder explained. "He is a complete unknown."

"I'll get on it."

Felix interrupted. "Yeah, if I'm to be going after this guy, then I'd like to be paid in advance."

"Mercenary scum." Adam sneered.

"I wouldn't knock it till you try it. Better than working yourself silly for some revolution." 

"Some silly revolution?! Our cause is just! We work to-" Adam started, full of outrage but Felix interrupted.

"Give equality to the Faunus, bla, bla, bla." Felix mocked. "Our cause is noble, bla, bla, bla. We are the good guys even if we are the ones that blow up buildings and kill civilians-"

Adam cut Felix off with an inhuman growl, his hand on the hilt of his sword. " _Human_ scum."

"And proud of it." Felix grinned under his helmet. "Seriously though, I'd like to be paid for the last job and in advance for the next if you want me to look for-" Felix nodded in the direction of the image. "That guy."

No need to let them know that it was the Meta of course, if they wanted that information they could pay for it.

"Of course, your payment will be transferred to your account as promised." Cinder said smoothly. "However, you will not be apart of the team hunting this unknown."

"Oh?" Felix raised an eyebrow as Cinder actually looked concerned for once.

"Yes, an airship will be with you shortly, my master wishes to meet you in person."

* * *

After Blake left Ruby continued to sit around for a full hour before she decided to head back to the room.

The walk back was nice and peaceful, Beacon always looked pretty at this time of night and it was only a little cold.

Her only real complaint was that she was a little hungry after accidentally missing dinner. Eh, she'd get a snack in the dorm.

Ruby entered the building and quickly made her way up to the dorm room, and entered....

....Only to find professor Ozpin standing in the centre of the room. 

Yang, Blake, Church, Wash, Sarge, Caboose and Tex were also there, all standing around awkwardly and looked like they'd been waiting for her.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Ruby asked warily. 

"He knows." Wash said and Ruby only had a few seconds to look surprised before Ozpin opened his mouth.

"Miss Rose, we've been waiting for you, please take a seat." He gestured. 

Ruby elected to take one of the desk chairs, Yang was sitting on her bed while Tex and Blake leaned against the walls and bedframe respectively.

Once she'd been seated Ozpin began speaking.

"Now I'm sure that you're all wondering why exactly I'm here right now. Well to be blunt I'm here about the 'intervention' that took place just before you all left on your mission."

All involved in said intervention glanced at each other.

"Now there are very few times in which I have ever been truly surprised." Ozpin continued on. "But your claims of seeing people from a different universe is one of them."

"Excuse me, professor?" Blake interrupted. "But how did you hear about this?"

"That is not important." Ozpin claimed. "But this news, well... I needed to see it for myself. And if I recall correctly, Ruby promised proof of her claims after the mission was over."

"Alright, sure." Ruby said anxiously. "Uh, Church would you mind....?"

"Right, right. I've gotcha covered kid." Church said.

Tex piped up. "You know, if it helps, I can verify that everything the kid is saying is true." 

Ozpin gave a neutral hum as they all tensely waited for Church to make his move.

Then he did it, walking over to Yang and then he made the jump, she briefly made a noise, went limp and then bolted upright again.

"Woah! Dear lord is this what being a girl is like?" Church's voice came from Yang's body, which was a supremely weird experience.

"Yang are you..." Blake trailed off.

"Oh no, I'm Church, pleased to meet you." He (she?) held out a hand to shake which Blake carefully did.

"So you are one of the soldiers then?" Ozpin asked curiously.

"Yep, Leonard Church, pleased to meet you and let me just say it's really weird that Wash's voice come out of some old mans body."

"And am I to assume we share a similar voice?"

"It is weird hearing my own voice." Wash said.

"Harder to tell which one of you is talking." Sarge chipped in.

Tex snorted. "I can here the difference, ones a distinguished headmaster of a school, and the others the same rookie that got yelled at for skateboarding in the halls."

"That was one time." Wash complained.

Ignoring this exchange Ozpin asked yet another question. "What exactly are you?"

"Well, I can't exactly speak for the rest of those idiots, but I am a motherfucking ghost."

"And how did you come to be in this place?"

"Well, that is a long story." Church said.

"I thought as much, you may leave miss Xiao Long now."

And Church did, Yang went limp and then shot back up, looking around wildly. "What happened?"

""You were possessed, I'll show you latter, I recorded the whole thing on my scroll." Blake informed her partner.

"With that out of the way, I'd like to invite you all to a meeting that will be taking place at 8AM tomorrow morning," Ozpin offered. "The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss everything related to this situation."

"Who'll be there?" Ruby asked.

"Qrow, general Ironwood, Miss Polendina, Team SALN and myself will all be in attendance." Ozpin counted them off. "I have also arranged for miss Nikos to be briefly discharged from the hospital so that she may also present for proceedings."

"Alright, we'll be there." Ruby said with a nod.

"Yeah you can count on me too." Tex confirmed.

"Excellent, I'll see you all tomorrow then."

With that Ozpin left, Tex shortly after.

Ruby wordlessly got up and went over to get some cookies to eat before bed.

Tomorrow would be a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> Well the ball is rolling now, in terms of notes there isn't much to say other that Oz found out about the blues and red through listening devices in case you missed it two chapters ago.
> 
> As always I'd like to thank everyone for reading and give extra thanks to those that comment/review, you guys are great.
> 
> Next time the truth is fully reveal and everything changes, but till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	31. The Strangest Story Ever Told

Everyone was here, Ozpin, Ironwood, Qrow, Penny, Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, Blake, Weiss, Nora, Jaune, Ren and Tex.

Ozpin's office had a lot more chairs in it than usual, enough to sit everyone. (Although technically Pyrrha was in a wheelchair until her new leg arrived.)

Honestly, it was making Wash nervous. They all wanted the inside scoop on the situation, a situation that not event they fully understood.

Furthermore Ozpin had been sitting incredibly still for the past several minutes with his eyes closed, which set Wash's nerves on edge.

"So when's this starting at?" Sarge asked.

"As soon as the last person gets here." Wash replied 

"And when exactly is that?" Church asked irritatedly. 

"Do I look like a fortune teller to you?" Wash shot back.

"No, you look like Agent Washingtub!" Caboose said cheerfully, causing Ruby to snicker in her seat.

Then the doors of Ozpin's office flew open and Taiyang entered, very much out of breath. 

"Sorry I'm late everyone, overslept." Taiyang yelled out as he walked over and took a seat.

"Don't worry about it, now we can begin." Ironwood said.

"Trust a blue to be late." Sarge grumbled.

"Ozpin?" Ironwood said. "Ozpin?"

"One minute." The headmaster requested. 

"What are you doing?"

Ozpin didn't answer and instead remained silent, then Wash felt strange. All his hairs stood on edge, he had goose bumps on his arms and a cold feeling shivered down his spine.

A quick glance at Church and Sarge showed that they also felt it while Caboose was a cheerful as ever.

Then Ozpin opened his eyes and looked directly at Wash.

"Wait, can you see me?" Washington asked.

"Yes." Ozpin nodded. "It was just a matter of knowing where to look." 

Ozpin then snapped his fingers and the strange sensation went away and Wash's body relaxed as everyone in the room looked at the blues and red.

Wait, everyone was looking at them?

"You guys are seeing this too right?" Yang asked aloud, disbelief evident on her face and voice.

"They weren't there a moment ago." Blake said.

Then Church yelled out. "Holy shit I have a body again." 

Wash turned to see that Church was in a body of cobalt armour again, flexing his fingers and arms in amazement, no longer a transparent white 'ghost'.

"What did you do?" Wash asked Ozpin, causing a round of gasps to go around the room as the others heard for the first time how Wash and Ozpin sounded the exact same.

"I decided to give you all more.. solid physical forms, I felt it would be better if you could tell your stories yourself." Ozpin said.

"But how?" Wash pressed.

Ozpin paused for a moment and, in the most sarcastic voice he'd ever heard, Ozpin said, "Magic."

Washington's eyes narrowed at what was clearly a false answer, but decided to not push it for now.

"Wow mister Caboose, you are a lot _bluer_ than I thought you would be." Penny said in amazement.

Caboose nodded. "Thank you, it is my most very favourite colour."

"Does anyone else think it's weird that the blue guy sound exactly like me?" Taiyang bought up.

"Hell no, if anything you sound like me!" Church claimed.

"You know that's not how any of that works, right?" Wash asked.

Church rounded on Wash. "I don't recall asking for your opinion Washington."

"Its not an opinion if it's a fact." Wash snarked back.

Sarge chuckled at the blues conflict. "And this is why blue team is clearly inferior to red team, on our side of the fence we don't argue constantly."

"Grif and Simmons, Grif and Simmons." Church coughed not-so-subtly. 

"Alright, lets not get off topic." Wash put his hand up. "We have proper human bodies now, which is good, but I believe we still need to explain everything."

Blake nodded. "That would be good, I honestly have no idea what is going on."

There were words of agreement from around the room. 

Things calmed down and everyone took their seats again, although because there was no seats for Church, Wash, Sarge and Caboose they had to stand.

Seeing everyone ready to hear the story, Wash decided on where to begin. "Well, everything can be traced to a military project called Freelancer." 

"What, your not going to start at blood gulch?" Tex interrupted. 

Wash shook his head. "No, it makes more sense to start at freelancer." Wash cleared his throat. "Project freelancer is a military project from our universe-"

"So you come from another universe?" Ironwood interrupted.

"Yes, but please don't interrupt, I'll stop periodically to answer questions." Wash said. "Anyway, the project was headed by a man known to everyone as 'the Director.' The goal of the project was to test soldiers and their connections with A.I in order to create super soldiers. But resources were tight and they could only secure one A.I unit, known only as 'The Alpha' and as you could probably guess it wasn't enough."

Two hands shot up and Wash paused to answer the questions. "Yes, Nora you go first."

"What does the 'A' stand for?" 

"Artificial, and put that hand down, the 'I' stands for intelligence. Next question, yes Qrow?"

"How is it you sound just like Ozpin here?" Qrow asked as he scratched his chin.

"We don't know." Wash said shortly. "Anyway, To get around this problem they... _split it._ Turning it into a lot of different fragments such as Sigma, Omega and-"

"Me." Tex interrupted. "I was split from the Alpha but the problem was that I couldn't remember anything. So they paired me up with Omega and I was made an agent of Freelancer, going on missions and dealing with red and blue sim troopers."

Two more hands went up.

"Yes Weiss?"

"What exactly are 'Sim troopers'?" Weiss asked.

"I'll field this one." Sarge chipped in. "You see there are two teams fighting an endless war, one the noble, heroic and amazingly competent red team. And the other is the terrible, no good, incompetent, team killing, lazy, arrogant, insufferable, incredibly stupid,-"

"He really hates blue team huh?" Yang muttered to Ruby who chuckled.

"Yep."

"-arrogant, didn't I already say arrogant? Well they are arrogant squared!, Annoying, scheming, plotting, horrible, terrible, suck up, damn dirty blue team!"

Wash gave a sigh that came from his very bones. "I'm not even going to touch on everything that's wrong with that, what's your question Ozpin?"

"What exactly do you mean by 'splitting' the Alpha?" 

"Well an A.I mind is just like a human mind when it's broken; it fragments. It fractures itself to protect itself. It was essentially reverse engineering a multiple personality disorder. They presented Alpha with scenario after scenario of stress and danger. When it started to fragment, they harvested those fragments."

"The Freelancer A.I.s. So they tortured it." Ironwood said solemnly.

Wash nodded an affirmative.

"It was around this time one of our own." Tex continued on. "an agent named C.T, she'd found out about the Alpha and defected, she was ultimately killed for it but not before she could let me know about the truth."

"And around this time I was implanted with the Epsilon A.I." Wash sighed. "Epsilon was the Alpha's memories, and I was unlucky enough to have it assigned to me and the second it entered my mind, Epsilon tried to commit suicide in my head and pretty much destroyed my psyche."

There were gasps and whispering erupted from around the room. 

"Was it sort of like when Ruby had that breakdown?" Yang asked.

"Yes, in fact that was the indirect cause of it. But after Epsilon was implanted, I was pretty much down for the count."

Tex took over the story. "After Wash was down and out, me and a couple of other Freelancers decided to try and break the Alpha out there, but we failed and scattered afterwards. But around a year after the crash, I intercepted some communications that led me to the shittiest canyon I'd ever seen."

"That is putting it lightly." Church snorted. "Blood Gulch straight up sucked."

"I dunno, I have some pretty fond memories of that canyon." Sarge reminisced. "Like that time Grif was run over by the tank, or when Donut killed that Freelancer."

"Gee Sarge, it's good to know that my terrible demise was one of your fondest memories." Tex said sarcastically.

"You ended up fine." Sarge waved his hand dismissively. 

"Anyway, lots of stuff happened in Blood gulch-" Tex said before Church interrupted.

"Caboose killed me!"

"We went forward in time!" 

"Tucker did it!"

Tex raised her hand to signal a stop in talking. "Anyway, A lot of stuff happened, most of it was just standing around and talking. By the end of it, I was blown up and crashed in a ship half way across the planet."

"Yeah, after you decided to join O'Malley in trying to take over the universe." Church said bitterly. 

Tex crossed her arms. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Wait a minute." Qrow interrupted. "Take over the universe?"

"O'Malley was a fragment of the Alpha, his rage to be precise and from what I gathered from the reports he and Tex were going to try and rule over an alien species by corrupting their religion." Washington explained.

"Did it work?" Ozpin asked curiously.

"Never got to find out, our ride exploded and I was stranded in another box canyon." Tex explained.

"A few months after this we were all assigned to different outposts, I was stationed as the only person at mine." Church said.

"I fixed tanks!" Caboose said enthusiastically. 

"I elected to remain behind and keep an eye on blood gulch. Unlike Grif and Simmons who left." Sarge explained.

"Who?"

"Grif and Simmons are other members of red team." Wash explained. ""By this point in time I was back in the game and was using my status in freelancer to search for a way to bring the organisation down from the inside. This lead me to Blood Gulch and Sarge, who pointed me in the direction of....."

"Me!" Caboose cheered.

".....Caboose." Wash said sounding dead inside. "From there we linked up with Church and encountered the Meta."

"The guy that we fought in the warehouse?" Nora questioned. "Who exactly is he?"

"He used to be a freelancer, one of the best. Agent Maine we called him." Wash explained. "He's a mute and needed an A.I to speak for him after he got a throat injury, that A.I was Sigma who was the Alpha's creativity. But this was not an equal partnership and eventually Sigma eroded Maine's thought process until they were basically the same. they became the Meta, whose only goal was to collect the other A.I in order to become the full Alpha again."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing?" Yang questioned.

"Perhaps, but their methods were... bloody to say the least." Wash shook his head. "Regardless, after our encounter we linked up with red team and together we made our way to command in order to stop the Meta once and for all. We snuck in and grabbed Epsilon who had memories of everything Freelancer had done and would be able to bring the whole organisation down. I sent the reds and Caboose away with Epsilon while Church and I prepared to face the Meta. It was here I told Church the truth, he is the Alpha."

"And, you know just for the record, that is bullshit because I am not an A.I, I am a motherfucking ghost." Church interrupted. 

"Anyway, once the Meta was there I set off an E.M.P which destroyed all the A.I including Church and Tex." Wash told them. "But unfortunately, Caboose neglected to give Epsilon to the authorities, so I was sent to prison for destruction of military property."

"Not my fault." Caboose claimed.

"Regardless, I was soon released to track down Epsilon with the help of a handicapped Meta. We tracked them to a place called Valhalla and-"

"We kicked his ass!" Sarge exclaimed. 

"I wouldn't put it like that." Wash shifted uncomfortably.

"What happened?" Nora asked curiously.

"We drove a car through a wall right into and blew him up." Sarge chuckled. "He got Sarge'd."

Wash shook his head before continuing. "Eventually we tracked the reds and blues to a place called Sidewinder, there we fought a weaker version of Tex."

"What?"

"It was created by Epsilon and was defeated by the Meta who then turned on us, causing me to band with the reds and blues to beat him."

"But who did?" Ironwood asked.

"Me." Sarge claimed. "You see, nothing was working, Tucker had stabbed him but he just shrugged it off. The agent Wash here gave me something and I knew what I have to do. I walk up to him, shotgun at the ready and say 'Over here you son of a bitch!' and he walks over. I fire off a shot, but he keeps going and he grabs me by the throat." Sarge waved his hands around dramatically. "Then I attach the tow cable to the Meta's suit and Grif and Simmons push the Warthog off the cliff, sending the Meta with it, killing the dirtbag."

"You killed that thing by tying it up to a car and throwing him off a cliff?" Jaune asked, a hint of awe in his eyes. "That is the coolest thing I have ever heard."

Ironwood put up a hand. "But if you killed him, then how is it that he recently tore through Vale?"

"Most likely the same reason that we are here talking to you after we met our own unfortunate fates." Wash said dryly. "In any case, soon after this we were joined by another former freelancer known as Carolina. She had faked her death years latter and was now ready to bring the Director to justice."

This time Pyrrha raised her hand.

"This... Carolina, she... looks like me right?" Pyrrha asked quietly. "Felix mentioned."

Wash nodded. "Yes, your the spitting image of a younger Carolina, and you sound almost exactly like her."

"What was she like?"

"Confident, skilled, but also competitive and more than a little cocky." Wash said, but seeing Pyrrha's expression droop he went on. "But most of all, she was a good friend. And was one of the few people that has my complete trust."

"Did you get the Director?" Ren asked.

"We did." Sarge confirmed.

"We beat Taxes!" Caboose enthused.

"After the Director was dealt with, we were all shipped back to Blood Gulch, but on the way our shipped crashed into a planet called Chorus." Wash said.

Tex shook her head. "You guys really do have the worst luck don't you? Even me and Church being destroyed in an E.M.P doesn't seem to make it any better."

"No kidding, but our luck was worse still, we'd crash landed right in the middle of a civil war." Sarge said dramatically.

"Chorus was divided between two factions, the Feds and the Rebels. led by Doyle and Kimball respectively. But something was clearly wrong and after being reunited with each other after being separated for a little while, we discovered the truth. The two mercenaries that worked with the armies, Locus for the Feds and Felix for the Rebels, they were working together with a third off world faction in order to elongate the civil war so that the entire population of the planet could be wiped out."

Everyone's eyes widened at that revelation.

"Who would do such a thing? Why would someone even consider it?" Blake demanded.

"The CEO of Hargrove industries, Malcom Hargrove." Washington answered. "But fortunately for us, we managed to warn both armies about this and they decided to join together to bring him down. But it wasn't easy, between the mercenaries and their advanced technology it was a tall order. But eventually we managed to get a signal to the UNSC, and exposed Hargrove to the galaxy."

"And in response, the son of a bitch came to the planet itself in his ship, we boarded it in order to destroy his forces and then...." Sarge trailed off.

"Then we died." Wash said quietly. "But the instant it happened we suddenly found ourselves in Patch as ghosts, only able to be seen by one person." He looked directly at said person.

"Me." Ruby said quietly.

There was silence as everyone took in all the information in and everyone thought about the same question, what now?

Ozpin spoke first.

"I'd like to thank you all for telling this story, it has been enlightening." Ozpin said with what Wash identified as sincerity. "Now, agent Washington you appear to be the leader of your group, correct?"

"Hell no!" Church objected. "If anyone is the leader it's me!" 

"Oh please." Sarge snorted. "I'm a Colonel, I outrank all of you."

"I'm a captain!" Caboose exclaimed. 

"Colonel outranks captain bluetard."

"If anyone is going to be the leader, it's going to be me." Tex said. "I'm easily the strongest and most badass here."

"Yes, I'm the leader." Wash told Ozpin dryly, much to the objections of the others.

Ozpin nodded. "Then I'd like for you to meet me later, to talk about the future of your friends here at Beacon. In an hour would suffice." Ozpin looked over the room. "Now if everyone excepting Taiyang, Qrow and Ironwood please leave? I need to discuss things with them, and I will call if I need any of you."

Wash nodded as everyone slowly got up and started to leave with the exception of Pyrrha who was wheeled out by Jaune.

But as he left, Wash knew that this wasn't over yet, not by a long shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of that chapter.
> 
> To tell the truth, I have struggled greatly with the writing of this chapter. There was massive writers block and nothing I wrote seemed to work on the page, but after a while I managed to get something that works. But boy, condensing 13 seasons of content into a single chapter is hard, so sorry if some things weren't mentioned.
> 
> And yeah, now the red and blues all have actual human bodies, except for Church who has a lovely new robot body, and it's all thanks to Ozpin using magic.  
> Now I don't know how you guys will react, but my reasons for this are threefold:  
> 1, it give me a lot more flexibility with character interactions, now we could have say Sarge teach Nora how to build better bombs or Church telling Jaune pick up lines.  
> 2, It means that they can now be more active participants in the story. e.g Ozpin and Wash having a chat about plot relevant stuff.  
> and finally, it standardises it so that now all the RvB gang have proper bodies.
> 
> Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone for reading and to give extra thanks to those that comment/review, you're all awesome.
> 
> The next two chapters will be released simultaneously and serve as joint epilogues for this particular story as yes, there will be a volume 3. But till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	32. Nothing To Fear...

It was something of a comfortable silence that Ruby was sitting in, it was just her and her team, everyone else was off doing something or other, so it was just them sitting around on the grass, taking in the beautiful day.

"Sooo...." Yang said.

"Sooo...." Ruby repeated, lying back on the grass as she did so.

"I guess owe you an apology then." Yang chuckled awkwardly. "You know, for thinking that you've been crazy for the last few years."

Ruby shook her head. "No, you don't need to apologise I mean, I guess the whole thing does sound a little crazy."

"You should probably tell dad then, he's away getting flowers and gifts as an apology." Yang chuckled.

"You know, I have some questions about this whole thing." Blake said. 

"Shoot." Ruby made finger guns at her.

"That thing where you... combined with them, what was it like? And can you still do it now that their real people now?" 

"Well, it felt weird so it did, like it was more listening to a voice that was really in my head." Ruby explained. "Could it still happen? No idea."

Pyrrha spoke up. "Well, what are they like? They seemed like decent people in the meeting." 

"Yeah, their the _best_." Ruby said. "Wash is like a strict, but cool uncle. Caboose is the nicest person _ever_ and Sarge is awesome! And while I haven't known Church for as long as the others, he's like a _perfect_ mix between Qrow and dad."

"Cool." Yang said with a nod and they returned to watching the clouds in the sky.

"What happens next?" Ruby asked suddenly, not really thinking about the question itself.

"No idea." Yang shrugged.

"Same here, it seems like things are going to change, so we might as well wait for them to settle down before anything happens." Blake suggested.

"All I know is that my new leg arrives next week, and it will be a long road to recovery." Pyrrha said.

"But you know that we're here for you, right?" Ruby asked.

"I know."

* * *

Tex watched the kids from the balcony, wishing that she had lungs to smoke with.

"Doing well?"

Tex didn't turn around at the sound of Qrow's voice, the huntsman walking over and standing right next to Tex on the balcony. 

"Well enough." Tex said shortly. "How did the meeting go?"

"It went fine, that Wash fellows in with Ozpin now. They're talking about making a place for you and your friends here at Beacon." Qrow said, watching the kids as he did so.

Tex shook her head. "I'm not really one for staying in the same place for a long time."

"Well if that's your attitude, I'm going out on a mission for Oz as soon as I'm all healed up. I could use someone to watch my back." Qrow offered. 

"Careful, I just might take you up on that offer." Tex said teasingly. "But I'd have to make sure Church and the others are safely set up first."

"Beacon's a good place, they'll do well here." Qrow assured her.

"But you know what the weirdest thing is?" Tex asked rhetorically. "It's seeing agent Washington being this take charge leader, when back in Freelancer he was the guy known for having a grappling hook stuck to his balls."

Qrow laughed. "Are you serious?"

"Yep. I might still have footage of the incident let me tell you, it was hilarious back in the day." Tex said, a rare air of nostalgia surrounding her words. Story time with everyone had brought back up quite a few memoires.

"Well, if you do end up deciding to join me, I should probably let you know that I'm something of a bad luck charm." Qrow said, still looking off into the distance. 

"Same here Qrow, same here."

* * *

"Hey." 

"Hey."

Ruby didn't turn around to look as Wash returned, he looked at her team lying on the ground and joined them at lying down on the ground.

"So how did it go?" Blake asked Wash.

"It went well I'd say, I won't bore you with the details, but once all the documents go through by the end of the winter holidays Beacon will have itself a new teacher." Wash revealed.

"What are you teaching?" Ruby asked.

"P.E aka Physical education." Wash said before elaborating. "While the majority of Beacon students keep in shape, far too many rely too heavily on their Semblances and Aura. My job will be to train up the body and teach both weaponless and Semblanceless combat."

"I don't know." Yang said sceptically. "It sounds too similar to combat class."

Pyrrha shook her head. "I can spot the different and I think it sounds like a grand idea."

"You poor deluded soul." Sarge said as he walked onto scene, Church and Caboose behind him. "Am I right that you plan to do the same thing you did with the armies of Chorus?"

"More or less, they might not be fighting a war, but they'll still be facing the Grimm which can be just as dangerous." Wash confirmed.

"Poor souls." Sarge chuckled.

"It can't be that bad." Blake said reasonably. 

Sarge chuckled again and shook his head. "Poor, poor souls."

"What about he rest of you guys?" Ruby asked. "What will you be doing while Wash teaches?"

"Teachers assistants." Church said, sounding distinctly unhappy about the fact. "Cause being a nerd in high school wasn't nearly enough."

"It won't be that bad Church." Caboose reasoned. "We can get matching lunch boxes!"

Church's following rant would be heard through out the entire school.

* * *

Ozpin rubbed his forehead tiredly. Giving the visitors from the other world physical form had been hard work and taken a lot out of him, but it was done.

They complicated things.

Many of his plans would need to be reconsidered on the basis that perhaps there were even more visitors from this alternate universe out there.

He'd have to send word out to his contacts to keep an eye out, for them and for anymore sigh of the Meta.

Now there was a dangerous foe.

They had their own agenda and weren't afraid to bend the rules to achieve it.

On their own they wouldn't be the biggest problem, but should Salem find them and form an alliance...

That was an inadvisable scenario. 

Then there was Felix. The mercenary was clearly already working with Salem's pawns, but it was unclear if Salem was even aware of his existence. Even if she wasn't, she would be soon. And depending on how much information he gave her...

That was another scenario to avoid.

But not counting the visitors from the other world, other events were equally as concerning. 

The Grimm inside the city, the alliance with the White Fang, the capture of Roman Torchwick.

All of these events made Ozpin uneasy, it was like seeing only a third of the full picture. Even Ozpin's plans regarding the fall maiden where in jeopardy.

Miss Nikos' unfortunate injury complicated the matter severally and some fall back candidates would need to be chosen.

But still, in spite of all of this. Agent Washington and the others could provide invaluable allies in the fight against her.

Ozpin opened up his computer and began typing the first of several emails.

It was time to start planning.

* * *

"Wash?"

"Yes Ruby?"

"Do you think everything will work out in the end?"

"Of course, why do you ask?"

"It just seems that a lot of bad things have happened and I'm not quite sure if everything will be alright."

"Of course they will be. We have each other and as they say..."

"There's nothing to fear..."


	33. ...Except Fear Itself

"...Except fear itself."

* * *

"And that's all of it ma'am." Cinder finished reporting, nervously shifting under _her_ gaze.

She made a show of giving a massive sigh. "My dear Cinder, there are no words in this modern language to express how deeply disappointed I am."

Salem turned around to face the video call of her minion.

"If your report is correct, not only is there new individuals participating in this little game of ours, but you _knew_ about them for longer than a month and didn't report them to me." Salem laid out the facts. "Is that not correct?"

"It is, but-" 

"But _nothing_." Salem interrupted coldly. "What interests me is how you claim that all of these individuals come from different worlds."

"It's true ma'am, Felix has claimed so and many of his previous claims have also proven true." Cinder said.

"Then I shall be most interested in talking with him when he arrives." Salem said, a cold and cruel smile on her lips.

Cinder nodded nervously, of course to the outsider it would have looked confident, but Salem knew the small things to look for. "Of course ma'am, he's expected to arrive within the next two days."

"In the meantime I would like you to continue with the plan and send me all data on this 'Meta' individual." Salem commanded.

"Of course, I'll do that now." Cinder made a move to end the call but Salem put up a hand.

"And one last thing, Do _not_ disappoint me again." Salem warned.

"Of course."

The call ended and Salem was left alone in her room with the long table, moments later her computer registered incoming data from Cinder. Salem's screen was filled with images and footage of the Meta, reports and analysis also present. 

Smoothly, Salem pressed an intercom button.

"Yes, how may I assist you my lord?" The voice of Arthur Watts emerged from the comm.

"I need you to send both Hazel and Tyrian to me now." Salem informed him as she gazed at images of the Meta.

"I have a new target for them to track."

* * *

After an hour of just trudging through it, Doyle was feeling just a little sick of snow.

Even the northern base wasn't nearly as frozen as this wasteland and over there he usually just used a Warthog for transport.

The long march was not helped by Doyle's new friend who had been brooding horribly after Doyle had told him all he knew about agents Washington and Carolina.

This was not going to continue.

"Pardon me, Delta was it?" Doyle asked politely as he could.

The green A.I popped into existence. "Greetings, how might I help you?"

"Yes, I was wondering; for exactly how long are we going to continue our trek through this desolate wasteland?" Doyle asked, his frustration bleeding through his tone.

"I do not know, the signal that I am tracking is rather vague, it could be days or even months before we stumble onto a settlement." Delta said.

"Or we could stumble across one right now." York interrupted. 

"What?" Doyle said at the same time as Delta.

York pointed right in front of them, showing where he had spotted said town, and it was a welcome sight.

Although it was only a welcome sight because it was a sign of civilisation, as the down itself looked rather dreary and bleak. It looked as rundown and as pleasant as some of the abandoned cities on Chorus. But there was still signs of life, mostly in the form of smoke and electricity.

"Well, first civilisation we find and it looks like it went down the crapper years ago." York sighed. "Great."

"I concur." Doyle said.

The duo and Delta made their way to the small town, spirits higher now that their goal was in sight.

And once they were about the enter the town York leaned over to Doyle and whispered. "Follow my lead, I'm a people person. And don't mention Delta, we've no idea what their position on A.I is."

Doyle nodded and they entered the town, very few individuals were around, most in warm big and fluffy coats. But a few moments later they encountered a man that seemed to be an authority figure of some kind, a literal sword on his back.

"I'll be damned." The sheriff said in what could only be described as southern accent. "What brings two Atlas soldiers to my quiet little town?"

"We were separated from our squad sir, our ship crashed." York lied easily.

The sheriff chuckled. "No need to call me sir, what exactly was your mission this far north?"

"Classified I'm afraid." Doyle said in his most apologetic tone.

"Figured as much, now I'm assuming you boys would like some transport back to Atlas?" 

York and Doyle looked at each other before York spoke. "Yeah, that sounds great." 

"Then I'm very sorry, but we don't have any transports and you just missed our last supply transport." The sheriff said apologetically. 

"Well how long before the next one arrives?" York asked. 

"Nearly three months."

"That's a long wait." York said. "Is it possible for us to walk there?"

"Not if you want to live, going to Atlas on foot from here would require crossing quite a lot of land and climbing more than on mountain." The Sheriff explained.

Doyle considered this for a full moment. 

"Perhaps there's an alternative option?" Doyle suggested. 

"Well, your both free to stay here until the supply transport comes back, we can afford the the two extra mouths. And in return you'd help defend the town from any Grimm attacks."

"That sounds reasonable." Doyle agreed.

"Perfect, I'll show you both exactly where you'll be staying."

As the sheriff led them, Doyle leaned into York and whispered. "What exactly is a Grimm?"

"No idea." York whispered back.

The sheriff stopped in the front of a building. "This here's the inn, our innkeeper Anne will get you both set up."

"Perfect, and pardon my asking, but do you happen to have any computers here?" York asked.

"Of course, I'm assuming you'll want to use it to report to your commanding officer? Well that building there is mostly private and has a computer." The sheriff pointed at a specific building. "You can use it while I talk to Anne."

The sheriff and them parted ways, and they entered the pointed out building and closed the doors securely. 

York clapped his hands together as Delta appeared, looming over the dim light of the computer. 

"Alright then Dee, where are we?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the vast skies of Remnant, Locus intercepted a transmission. 

"all of these individuals come from different worlds... Felix has claimed so... send me all data on this 'Meta' individual..."

Those were the phrases that he had intercepted, it had been done by pure accident but Locus appreciated the results as even this snippet of a full conversation gave him clarity.

Felix was here, as was the Meta. Both very dangerous individuals in their own ways, Locus would need to deal with them both as soon as possible.

But of course then there were the other signals he was tracking, the two in Mantle were too far north to be a proper danger but they could prove allies.

There were too many in and around Vale to even consider starting there, but the one from Vacuo...

Locus's thought process was interrupted when the plane he was flying let off another alarm, indicating another transmission had been intercepted by Locus's program that he had put into the mainframe of the ship.

Locus pressed a button and listened.

"Cinder."

"Watts."

"I need you to send us a copy of your data on- Bzzz." 

"Bzzz, ask why?" 

"Well, Tyrian and Hazel are on- Bzzz."

Then the transmission cut out abruptly, presumably he'd lost it. But it had still told him enough. Others of unknown intentions were on the same trail that he was.

Interesting.

Seeing nothing else for it, Locus decided that Vacuo would be first on the list and so he put in the coordinates and settled in for a long flight.

* * *

Roughly around this time, miles outside the actual kingdom of Vacuo, in the boiling hot afternoon a lone woman's motorbike was being dragged into a repair shop by it's owner who was cursing her own misfortune.

"Stupid blood thing..." She muttered as she pulled into the repair shop. "Hello! Anyone here?"

She was met with silence, causing the woman to mutter to herself. "Great. Just great Claire, you managed to break your bike and end up in an abandoned repair shop. Just great."

As she turned to leave, resigned about how she'd have to drag the motorbike all the way to Vacuo, a voice called out. 

"Wait! Wait!"

Claire turned back around in time to see a skinny mechanic come running into the building. "Sorry about that, I was in the can... What can I do for you pretty lady?"

"First off, it's Claire not 'pretty lady' and secondly, it's my motorbike, the engine died a while back and I couldn't fix it." Claire explained.

"Right, right." The mechanic nodded absently. "Well, the names Scooter. I can fix almost anything, but unfortunately I was never any good at fixing two wheelers."

Claire groaned. "Great."

"Hey, do not despair Claire." Scooter said, dragging out the pronunciation of her name. "I recently picked up some help that's like a wizard or something, he _knows_ the machines man. Rescued him from the middle of the desert like a month ago, he's stayed around ever sense." 

"Right, I'll see him then."

"Cool, cool." Scooter said, before yelling. "YO DUDE, WE GOTTA CUSTOMER! FRONT AND CENTER MAN!"

Moments later a door in the repair shop opened into the garage area they were in, and a man stepped out.

He looked out of place in the desert area, sporting a very dusty black and grey suit and short black hair that was greying in most places. He also had square glasses that seemed to reflect the sunlight.

"Yes scooter?" The 'dude' as Scooter christened him said in what was a strange accent.

"We gotta customer, she needs her motorbike repaired like _now_." Scooter said.

"Yeah, I'm headed to Vacuo so that I can meet my brother, he's named Chris." Claire explained.

"I'll have a look." Was all the 'dude' said.

He went over and knelt down to inspect it, after a few minutes he stood up and gave his diagnosis. 

"It looks like sand has clogged up important parts of the engine, after a through cleaning it should be fine." 

"Great." Claire said, her arms crossed over her red jacket. "How much do I owe you?"

"Not much, just a few lien." Scooter said casually.

Claire frowned. "That seems a little low, I wouldn't want to be short changing you or anything."

"It's no bother, we've got plenty of business from huntsmen and huntresses in the area." Scooter explained. "My friends is what I call 'em. Why I remember this one time Roland-"

"Scooter, before your latest diatribe I'd recommend getting the equipment we'd need." The 'dude' interrupted.

"Good call dude." Scooter said before he left, presumably to get the equipment.

Claire leaned casually against a wall. "Thanks for your help."

"Don't mention it."

"I don't think I caught your name." Claire stated curiously.

At this the man gave a sad chuckle. 

"You can call me Church." He said, a trace of sadness omnipresent in his voice.

"My name is doctor Leonard Church."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of the story.
> 
> Now, while it's mostly short scenes, the purpose of this epilogue is to provide a little closer and set up volume 3, which I can confirm is coming.
> 
> However it will be quite a while before you guys will read it as I'm taking a minor break from this particular series in order to pursue some other fanfic ideas that I've had. But rest assured there will be a volume 3.
> 
> My new ideas will be one Rwby/Mortal Kombat fusion fic that no one asked for. A She Ra fanfiction about Adora's early days in the rebellion. And finally a Dragon Prince cannon divergence AU.
> 
> The first chapter of the MK one is already posted so feel free to check that out. The first chapters of the other two will be posted on Sunday, so please feel free to check those out as well.
> 
> I'd like to thank everyone for sticking around with this story, your support has made this story one of the best projects I've ever worked on.
> 
> In particular I'd like to thank: ReaderWarrior, Annonamous Elephant, Brain.H.H and Wildcard1412 for their constant support. 
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading and until next time, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.


End file.
